Scattered Feathers
by sunshine-in-writing
Summary: It was the usual heist. Dark got in, grabbed the required artwork, and avoided the police with ease. What was not usual was who came in pursuit. And unknown to them, the artwork in question already had a soul. DarkxKrad, DaixSat, and yaoi yumminess. Lemon
1. The Usual Heist

**Disclaimer: I do not own or lay claim to the characters, words, or world of D.N. Angel. Everything except the plot is owned by our dear bunny-sensei. And this disclaimer holds for all consecutive chapters of this story.**

—

—Scattered Feathers—

—

"_Dark, watch out!"_

"_WOAH! Thanks."_

"_Pay more attention!"_

"_Right."_

Dark sped through the dark halls of the museum, looking behind him only to see Satoshi right behind him, hot on his tail. Dark looked forward in time to jump over another trap that would have landed him in a well. Satoshi jumped over it as well and followed more closely.

"_DARK!! That was waaay too close, pay attention! You know we can't get caught!" _Daisuke yelled in his head.

"_Don't worry, Dai-chan, everything will be just fine, trust me," _Dark said to his alter ego.

"_God, I hope so." _ Daisuke fell silent.

Dark looked back once more to see…no one there. He frowned, but kept on going, reaching the roof door and going through. It started to rain heavily as he ran out. Looking around, he didn't see anything—no traps, no policemen, and no commander, which made Dark nervous.

"_What's wrong, Dark?" _Daisuke asked.

"_Something's not right here, Dai-chan. Where's that creepy bastard, and why is everything so quiet all of a sudden? I don't like it," _Dark commented.

"_Well then what are you waiting for? Let's get going before something _does _happen, this might be a trap and I _really _don't want to get caught," _Daisuke said, his own nervousness increasing.

"_All right Dai-chan," _Dark sighed and walked over to the rail surrounding the roof. Then he heard a snicker in the corner. Dark turned around to see who was there, but couldn't see anything… and the evil snickering continued.

"Who are you? Show yourself!" Dark yelled, wary of being snuck up on.

"Why, Dark Mousy, have you forgotten me already?" asked a voice from the shadows…a voice that sent chills down Dark's spine.

"Come into the light," Dark said in a controlled voice, letting none of his fear come through in his tone.

A figure stepped from the shadows and into the light—or relative light, anyway, as it was stilling raining heavily. He had long blonde hair and golden eyes to match. A long white robe and white wings fluttered around him. One could have called him angelic, if not for the sadistic smile on his face as he looked at Dark. And as Dark looked at him, only one word came from his lips.

"Krad…"

"Ah, so you do remember me! That will make this much easier, don't you agree?" asked Krad with an avaricious glint in his eyes as he looked the thief up and down.

"_Dark, do you know who this is?" _asked Daisuke.

"_Yes Daisuke, I do, and I hope to god that we can get out of here alive," _Dark replied.

Daisuke started to get worried now; Dark seemed genuinely afraid of this guy, which could only mean trouble.

"_Dark, let's get out of here now, while we still have a chance!" _Daisuke mentally yelled at Dark.

"_Sorry Daisuke, that option's out of the question; he would just chase us down and kill us, he's more powerful in magic than I am, but I have the advantage on the ground and in hand-to-hand combat."_

"_So hurry and do _something_, Dark, he's coming!!" _Daisuke yelled, and Dark snapped out of it in time to dodge a ball of energy.

"Sorry Dark, but you weren't paying any attention to me, so I decided to bring you back to reality," Krad said as he stepped closer.

_Damn, _Dark thought as he gripped his arm. He hadn't been completely successful in dodging the blast.

"Oh my, did I wound you? I am _so _sorry Dark, I should have looked at where I was aiming." Krad's laugh was like a thousand needles piercing Dark, and he shivered, a chill going up and down his spine.

"Well, it was lovely seeing you again and all, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut this reunion short. Bye, you asshole, and don't bother to keep in touch!" Dark yelled as he jumped off of the museum and into the air, carried away by his black wings.

Krad looked up in annoyance and followed quickly, smirking the whole time as Dark futilely dodged his energy blasts. He became more confident and quickened his speed, firing his energy at much closer ranges.

Dark was having a hell of a time trying to get out alive. He could tell when Krad threw one of his energy blasts, but as Krad got closer, Dark was having more trouble dodging. Not only that, but his wings were getting soaked and it was becoming increasingly hard to stay in the air. Finally Krad hit him hard in the back and he heard a couple of ribs snap under the pressure. Dark felt nauseous as his wings folded in and he fell toward the ground, but he gritted his teeth against the pain and forced his wings to carry his weight again.

"Wiz, no!" he screamed as a shriek split the air and Wiz, in his black transformed form, attacked Krad, digging his claws in and binding to the white-winged angel. There was a flash of light and a pitiful wail, and even through the pouring rain Dark could smell burned feathers and scorched flesh as Wiz disappeared, presumably falling to earth in his true form.

—

—

—

Krad smirked as his energy blast hit Dark dead in his back. He knew it would only be a matter of time before Dark became his. He saw Dark lose altitude below him, and decided that now would be a good time to finish it.

He was momentarily distracted as that rodent-thing that sometimes acted as Dark's wings attacked him, but it was soon taken care of and he was free to consider his enemy's imminent death once again.

"_Don't you dare, Daisuke is in Dark, you'll kill them both!" _Satoshi yelled in Krad's mind.

"_Satoshi-sama, I wouldn't butt in if I were you, I know perfectly well that your precious 'Daisuke' is in Dark, and that is precisely _why _I have to kill them both," _Krad said in response as he gathered more energy into his palm.

"_If you kill Daisuke, I will kill myself and you along with me, and since there are no more Hikaris to carry you around anymore, you'll be extinct!" _Satoshi yelled, and Krad stiffened.

"_You wouldn't kill yourself like that Satoshi-sama, not for one measly little wing master," _Krad said calmly.

"_You want to test me Krad?" _Satoshi asked calmly, and Krad went silent.

"…_Very well, Satoshi-sama, but remember this, do not make a habit of open threats like this to me, next time I might not listen." _Krad locked his tamer up and saw that Dark had recovered and was trying to speed up and gain height again. He looked down at the fresh energy ball in his hand. It seemed a waste to just toss it aside…

—

—

—

Dark was trying to get ahead in the game. He had glanced behind him to see Krad distracted by his tamer, and tried to get his wings to cooperate and fly a little higher.

"_Wait, you knew that Krad was in Satoshi?" _Daisuke asked.

"_Yes…ugn…I knew, now let me concentrate…ahh!…while we're still alive," _Dark said through the pain and had just gotten to the height he wanted when he glanced back again to see Krad throw the energy that was in his hand up at him.

"You fucking bastard!" Dark yelled as he tried to dodge, but his wet wings weren't working properly, and when the blast hit him, his already abused ribs and wings simply collapsed.

And as Dark fell he looked up at Krad, who seemed to be satisfied, and saw peace in his enemy's face for the first time ever. And as he got closer to the ground and his world became darker, he could've sworn he saw someone's hand reach out for him.

—

—

—

Krad watched as Dark fell towards the ground far below them. He could feel peace now — he had finally defeated _the _Dark Mousy, after four hundred years of hatred.

"_What do you mean, I thought you said you wouldn't kill him!!" _Satoshi yelled hysterically.

"_Oops, my bad," _Krad said as he let a small smile grace his lips. _"Although he's not technically dead yet, as he has yet to hit the ground."_

"_Krad I swear, when I get out, I'm gonna kill you, kill us both!" _Satoshi said, and Krad could tell he was quite serious.

Krad's smile disappeared as he and Dark made eye contact. He felt suddenly guilty of something. His heart pounded as he abruptly watched Dark fall down much too quickly for his liking. Without thinking, he folded his wings and plunged after him, reaching out his hand and grabbing Dark just as his eyes closed and he fell unconscious. With a powerful flare of his soaked, sodden white wings, the golden angel turned the dive into a glide and then began pumping powerfully, carrying them both into safer altitudes.

Krad looked down at the unconscious Dark in his arms, utterly flabbergasted to the point of momentary speechlessness.

"Why did I just save him?" Krad asked aloud incredulously several seconds later.

"…" Satoshi stayed quiet in shock.

Krad watched as Dark's face constricted in pain, and then he groaned and burrowed his face into the golden-haired angel's chest. The thief started to mutter deliriously as Krad held the two of them still in the air, his wings working furiously to keep both immortals aloft in the all-pervasive rain.

"_Seems you get your wish, Satoshi-sama, your precious Daisuke is saved." _Satoshi didn't respond.

Krad glanced down again and saw that Dark looked frighteningly pale and was soaked through to the point of shivering. He felt the strange feeling bubble inside him again, like butterflies in his stomach, but shook it off as some strange occurrence as the rain grew heavier. He shot off into the sky for Satoshi's apartment.

—

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**Sooo… you know, it is my dearest ambition in this world to hear what you think of this story. So press the little purple button, peoples!! And thank you in advance to the people who will!! I know who you are!! (Or I will soon, at any rate…)**


	2. Double Crap!

**Hey y'all, I couldn't remember what day I posted on, so from now on posts will always be on Tuesday. Because that's just about the only day I'll remember. Ummm… yeah. Here you go!**

* * *

_Arm and two ribs snapped, feverish and sick, I guess leather really doesn't do much for keeping body heat in…_

Krad walked into Satoshi's apartment and closed the door behind him. He felt Dark shift in his arms, and glanced down to see Dark's eyes open slightly, but they were unfocused, and Dark only muttered something before his eyes closed again. 

Krad walked into Satoshi's room and laid Dark down gently on the bed, trying to disturb his injuries as little as possible. After fifteen minutes of searching and twenty-three muttered swear words Satoshi's medical kit was set down next to him. Krad looked down at the unconscious thief and sighed, then began to strip off his wet clothes. He studiously avoided looking at the gorgeous, wet, tan body he was revealing as he grabbed some bandages and began wrapping up Dark's injuries. When he was done he tucked the blanket in securely around the thin, still body.

Krad watched Dark mutter a few more things and as his face grew flushed with fever, the golden-eyed boy got up and grabbed a wet cloth, which was then placed on Dark's forehead. Krad unconsciously let his hand fall to Dark's face, touch his cheek, trail down to his lips…Krad jumped back as if something sharp had jabbed him. 

"_What am I doing?" _Krad asked wide-eyed.

There was no reply from Satoshi. Krad finally sat down in a chair and simply watched Dark sleep.

—

—

—

He felt comfortable, safe, and warm…too warm for comfort all of a sudden, and he tried to move away from that heat, so far that he felt himself falling, only to be caught by strong arms. Dark opened his eyes to focus on a pair of golden, slitted pupils.

"Crap."

Krad looked down at Dark, amused.

_Wait, wasn't I just falling to my death, like, two seconds ago…? WHERE THE FUCK AM I AND WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING HERE, THIS ISN'T HELL!_ Dark screamed mentally, before wincing at the mental tirade he was going to get from Daisuke both for swearing and for blowing the little redhead's eardrums out. But the outraged voice never came, and Dark cocked his head, curious. He'd screamed loud enough to wake his tamer if he was sleeping, hadn't he?

"_Dai-chan, Dai-chan, wake up already, are you there, earth to Dai-chan, hello…?"_

No answer came.

"Double crap."

Dark _really _didn't like being upside down in Krad's hold, so he slowly moved a bit, got his hands to the ground when…

"What do you think you're doing?" Krad asked, still amused.

"What does it look like? I'm not dancing a ballet, that's for sure," Dark snapped sarcastically.

"You never change, you're still as immature as you were two hundred years ago," Krad said and helped Dark stand on his own.

_Doesn't he want to blow me up or something? Why's he here helping me stand up? _Dark thought to himself.

"And you've seemed to change quite a bit. Since when do you save your mortal enemy from death?…And then nurse him back to health too!" Dark exclaimed, noticing the bandages.

"Hn, I can kill you whenever I want to, I just didn't feel like it, it was too easy. You simply crumpled under one little blast," Krad said unemotionally.

_Not a bad story, even if it's not even near the truth, _Krad thought.

They stayed in silence for a few moments until Dark thought it was time to move again. Suddenly feeling the broken ribs, back pain, pain in his arm, and the effects of his fever, all in one, he collapsed onto the blond angel.

"Dark?" Krad asked, surprised, when the figure fell into him without warning.

"Ung…leave me alone…Krad…" Dark said.

_Because you're doing such a stellar job on your own, _Krad thought as he helped Dark back onto the bed.

"Ouch," whispered Dark pathetically.

_What should I do? I don't know anything about fevers. _Krad watched Dark moan and groan on the bed, and decided that he had to do_ something_.

"_Satoshi-sama."_

No answer.

"_Satoshi-sama?"_

"Damn," Krad said out loud.

"Huh?" Dark looked up at Krad.

"Do you have contact with your host?" Krad asked slowly.

"Dai-chan? Nope, haven't heard from him, probably flew the coop."

"The owner of your body can't just 'fly the coop,' Dark, you know that." Krad frowned. "We have no contact with our hosts, how can that be…wait a minute, Dark, what exactly did you steal?"

"I don't know, something that Emiko-san told me to get, I didn't figure it was important. It was just a stupid…little…pendant…" Dark mumbled as he fell asleep.

Krad stared at the sleeping form of his nemesis.

"If we can't contact our hosts, and we haven't turned back into them, does that mean that we're…free?"


	3. Deserted

**Yo! Here's another stellar chapter from moi! (Actually it was written by blood-fire-dragon, but shh! No one needs to know, and I can claim ownership! MUAHAHAHAHA!)**

* * *

Krad paced around the living room, leaving Dark to rest.

_Damn, why did Satoshi-sama have to disappear now of all times, when I actually need him for once!_

Hearing shuffling behind him, Krad turned around to see Dark leaning against the wall for support, his glazed eyes looking right at him and completely oblivious to the fact that he didn't have a stitch of clothing on.

"Dark, what are you doing out of bed? You're supposed to be resting," Krad said softly, not even recognizing his own voice. He kept his eyes firmly above Dark's collarbone.

Dark shifted a bit and moved a few feet further, before collapsing…but Krad was half-expecting it, and caught him.

"Ugn…Krad, I need…Bathroom!" Dark yelled, struggling to get up.

Krad helped him up and led him to the bathroom. Dark staggered to the toilet, fell on his knees in front of it, and began heaving up everything he'd eaten in the past day. Krad unconsciously rubbed Dark's back to sooth him, and eventually Dark stopped convulsing and relaxed against the wall, breathing deeply.

"Dark, are you ok?" Krad asked, concerned. _Wait…What the hell did I just ask, and why the fuck do I care?_

Dark looked up to him again, this time glazed eyes focusing slightly. Confusion was written on his face.

_What did he just ask me…?_

"Dark?" Krad asked again.

"I'll…be…fine," Dark finally said, putting his head between his knees and rocking slightly.

_Dark must feel incredibly shitty, but I still don't know anything about illnesses…not even when Satoshi-sama was sick, I should've spent more time paying attention than insulting him. _Krad got up and went into the medicine cabinet. _This is what Satoshi-sama always uses, right?_

Dark watched Krad go into the medicine cabinet, grab something, and then kneel down next to him.

"Here, this will probably help your fever. I saw Satoshi-sama use them, I think he called it Ibuprofen," Krad said, holding out the pills to Dark, who in return looked up at him suspiciously.

"What are you planning, Krad? Why are you helping me?" Dark asked, still a little out of breath.

Krad sighed. "Dark, just take them, it'll bring down your fever," he said, holding Dark's head up and putting the pills in his mouth.

"Don' wanna," Dark mumbled out as Krad got a glass of water and put it to his lips. Despite his words he drank it thirstily.

"There you go…just relax now, your fever should go down soon," Krad said, helping Dark up slowly as to not upset his stomach again.

"Mmmnnn…" Dark whimpered again, still feeling like crap, but a bit better.

Krad glanced down at Dark worriedly. Having Dark's full weight on him, he might as well had been carrying him, but if he picked him up it would upset his stomach again. Krad sighed. He gently laid Dark back on the bed, who immediately curled up into a ball and shivered.

_Why is it so cold? Where is Dai-chan? What's going on with Krad? _The thoughts kept repeating themselves over and over again in the wounded kaito's head.

Krad frowned at Dark, who was shivering even more, even after he had put another quilt on him. Finally Krad sighed, walked up to the bed, and crawled in, not expecting Dark to immediately curl up to him.

"Dark?" Krad asked, confused.

"Shut up…Krad…sleepy," Dark mumbled, falling quickly into a deep sleep.

"Uh, ok, but Dark could you let go of my waist?" Krad asked, glancing over to Dark's face, who was relaxed and asleep.

_Damn it, damn it, damn it, why did he have to fall asleep now? _Krad thought, still staring at Dark's beautiful face, that perfect nose, those rosy lips…and suddenly the thought occurred to him (and not for the first time that night) that Dark was completely naked.

"Fuck no!" Krad yelled, making Dark groan and hold on tighter.

_Great, now I made it worse… _Krad yawned widely, surprising himself. _All this stress is making me tired…maybe a light nap would be good…_ Krad's thoughts were all scrambled after that as he snuggled into Dark and fell asleep.

—

—

—

"Where exactly am I?" Asked a calm voice, echoing through nothingness.

"Uggnn…Huh?" Asked a sleepy voice.

"Dai-kun?" Asked the first voice again.

"Sato-kun? Where…Where are we? What's going on?" Daisuke asked nervously, opening his eyes and beginning to panic when he saw nothing but shards of glass and darkness.

"Calm down, Dai-kun, I'm right behind you," Satoshi said, gripping the boy's shoulder.

"Ahhh! Don't _do _that! You scared the shit out of me!" Daisuke said, clutching his chest.

"Sorry," Satoshi said apologetically, releasing his grip.

"That's ok, just don't suddenly grab me unless it's an emergency… So where are we?" Daisuke asked again, looking around. There wasn't much to look at.

"I don't know," Satoshi said, having a very bad feeling about the whole thing.

Daisuke glanced at Satoshi and frowned. Satoshi not knowing troubled him. Then he noticed something, and grabbed Satoshi's hand.

Satoshi glanced over at the redhead. "What?"

"Umm, Satoshi, did you happen to notice that we're, um…floating?" 

"Huh?" Satoshi asked as he noticed that, yes, they were indeed floating. "No, I didn't notice until just now."

"Uh oh…" Whined Daisuke, suddenly having very a bad feeling.

"_Dark? Are you there?" _Daisuke asked.

No answer.

"_Dark?" _Daisuke asked desperately.

"Dark!" Daisuke yelled out, surprising Satoshi.

"What?" Satoshi asked, coming closer to the Niwa, and stopping when he saw Daisuke close to tears.

"Dark's not there, Satoshi, what's going on?" Daisuke asked, a few tears running down his cheek.

Satoshi frowned and looked down at his feet, he too had noticed that Krad wasn't responding. He looked back up as Daisuke shed a few more tears. 

_Must be hard on him, he didn't have a sadistic ang…no, devil inside him… _Satoshi thought sadly, and wiped away Daisuke's tears.

Daisuke looked up into Satoshi's eyes, seeing something flicker there before disappearing again. He started to tear up again when he had a thought.

"What's wrong, Daisuke?" Satoshi asked, concern showing through his usually cold mask.

"What if we never get out of here? What if Dark and Krad…what if they're…" Daisuke's sentence was caught off when Satoshi pulled him into a tight hug.

"Don't think about it Daisuke, just be your normal cheery self, and things'll be alright," Satoshi said, calming the young red head.

"But Satoshi…" Daisuke whispered, burrowing further into Satoshi's embrace as if it was a lifeline.

"Don't worry Daisuke, everything will be all right, I promise," Satoshi said, tightening his hold.

Daisuke started to calm down a bit, his crying slowing and finally stopping as he unconsciously relaxed in Satoshi's strong but gentle hold. It was something you wouldn't normally expect from Satoshi, but Dai didn't consider that at the moment — he just wanted to feel safe, and Satoshi made him feel that way.

Satoshi looked down to see the Niwa completely relax, snuggling into him like a pillow. He gave a small smirk as he started to rock Daisuke back and forth, like a mother and child (or lover to lover, but that was a thought he would never, ever voice out loud).

Daisuke felt a little yawn leave his mouth and nuzzled into Satoshi even more, half asleep, half awake, and just let his thoughts wander around.

_Mmmm, Satoshi feels so warm, he gives off such a cold vibe, but he's really quite warm…this is nice, _Daisuke thought as he let his eyelids droop.

Satoshi stopped his rocking and looked down at the now sleeping Daisuke. With a smile, Satoshi curled around the red-haired art thief and let himself drift into sleep, whispering one thing before the full effect hit him.

"Aishiteru…Daisuke."


	4. Very Uneasy Truces Indeed

Somewhere outside a car door slammed. That was the first sound he heard as Krad slowly started to wake up. He immediately went on alert for any problems, and tried to figure out where he was. He felt really rested and comfortable, and the warmth that only a body gave off was emanating from right next to him.

Krad's eyes snapped open and he stared in shock at the still sleeping Dark, now tangled together with him. A faint blush crept up Krad's cheeks at their positions. He quickly shook his head and mentally growled at himself.

_How the _Hell_ did we end up in this predicament? _Krad mentally asked, and slowly began untangling himself.

He sat up in the bed once that was accomplished and simply watched Dark sleep, noticing little things about him. The blankets did really nothing to hide every curve and muscle of Dark's naked body. He watched the (thankfully) covered chest slowly rise and fall in steady breaths. He watched as Dark's mouth opened and closed, those soft full lips, begging to be kissed…_WHAT THE FUCKING HELL!!_

_What was I thinking?! This is Dark, my other half, my enemy, how could I think those…_things _about him, it's just so…so…hmph, it doesn't matter what it is, I have no feelings, so it doesn't matter. At all. _There were no butterflies in his stomach just at the sight of Dark, let alone…no, he would not think about it.

Just as his decision was made to remain firmly in denial, Dark started to wake up. Amethyst eyes opened and took in the scene. Krad…bed…tangled sheets…naked body…AAAHHHHHHH!!

"AAAHHHHHHH!!" Dark yelled, and he fell out of bed with a loud THUD.

Krad blinked a few times, then crawled across and looked over the edge to see Dark cursing his luck, and how much his wounds were killing him.

"What was that for?" Krad asked, scowling down at Dark.

"You suddenly showed up in my eyesight, who _wouldn't_ yell and fall off the bed?" Dark asked, scowling right back.

"Hmph, your stupidity never ceases to surprise me," Krad said, getting up and glancing once more at the now standing Dark.

"You wanna start something?" Dark asked menacingly.

"You are too weak to fight me, and besides you would just re-open your wounds. I would advise you not to fight a battle that I've already won," Krad stated cockily, and walked out to the living room.

"Hey!" Dark yelled after him, only just processing what he had said.

_Hmph, asshole, thinks he rules the world!_

"You seem better than yesterday," came a voice from beside him.

Dark yelped, jumped, and twisted around, quickly regretting his actions.

"Don't sneak up on me!" Dark yelled through clenched teeth.

"Baka, you shouldn't hurt yourself like that, but at least your fever is gone," Krad said, removing his hand from Dark's forehead and walking back into the living room.

"Stupid moronic idiot, scaring me like that, ooh, when I get better I'll…" Dark mumbled to himself.

"Dark, stop talking to yourself, everyone already knows that you're crazy so stop giving them more proof," Krad said, not looking up from where he was sitting on the couch and flipping through one of the many folders Satoshi left lying around.

"Oooh, that is _it_, one more insult, I _dare_ you," Dark hissed angrily, glowering at Krad.

"My tamer is gone and I need to find that pendant you stole and get him back before he dies. As for you, I don't care," Krad stated, watching emotionlessly as Dark sat across from him.

"So? My tamer's gone too, and you're gonna need my help and you know it as well as I do. Besides, you _are _the one who made me drop it in the first place," Dark said accusingly.

"I don't need help from an injured and weak idiot," Krad said again, scowling at Dark.

"That's _it_!!" Dark yelled and lunged at Krad, knocking the surprised angel over the couch and onto the ground. Dark straddled Krad's thighs as he pinned his arms above him.

"I am _tired _of you insulting me, now, we both need help finding and retrieving our tamers, so shut up and deal with it!" Dark stated angrily, pressing himself harder against the shocked Krad and ignoring the rather insistent pain making itself known in his ribs.

A blush rose to Krad's cheeks at their positions, even though Dark didn't seem to notice. And Dark sitting on top of him, holding his arms above his head, the amethyst-eyed boy's hips unconsciously grinding into his own, made Krad blush all the more. He turned his head and mumbled something.

"What did you say?" Dark asked, loosening his grip on Krad's arms.

"I said _fine_, now would you mind getting _off _of me?!" Krad exclaimed, trying _very _hard to conceal how squeamish he was at the moment.

"Fine, we'll work together to find our tamers, get them back, and then go back to the way things were," Dark said, smiling a bit before finally noticing how flustered the blonde was. He looked confused, then glanced down and realized why Krad was so squeamish.

Blushing slightly, Dark scrambled off of Krad and let him get up. Krad rose to his feet and turned to glare at Dark.

"Well, let's get going," Krad said, turning and exiting the room, Dark close behind.

—

—

—

"Are you sure this is where you dropped it?" An annoyed Krad asked, stepping out of the bushes.

"Positive, I remember having it in my hands when you shot me, and then Wiz attacked you and I dropped it…wait, where's Wiz?!" Dark shouted, looking around like a mad man and shivering. His clothes had still been wet, so they had scrounged in Satoshi's room and found some clothes that fit him. Unfortunately no jacket was nearly large enough, so Dark was freezing in a long-sleeved but thin shirt and a pair of jeans that looked like they'd never been worn.

"Who knows where that white rabbit went, probably flew home," Krad muttered to himself and kept looking for the pendant.

"Hey you're right, that means Wiz might have the pendant! Come on, let's get back to Daisuke's house!" Dark said with excitement, grabbing Krad's hand and starting off.

"But Dark, I'm a _Hikari_. How would the Niwas react to that?" Krad asked, glaring at Dark's hand.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Dark said sullenly, slowing down, though not letting go of Krad.

Krad got a strange feeling in his chest as he watched Dark's expression change so drastically. He pushed it aside and yanked his hand out of Dark's. Dark looked up at him in confusion.

"Dark, you _are _a moron," Krad stated, shaking his head at Dark.

"Hey, no name calling, and what do you mean by that?" Dark asked testily.

"I mean that you could go and explain to the Niwas what happened, while I stay a distance away from their magic," Krad said, walking past Dark.

"Okay, but it could take awhile," Dark mumbled and walked alongside Krad.

"We don't have very much time Dark, so I suggest you hurry."

—

—

—

"…And so that's what we know, now Krad n' I are looking for the pendant to get the boys back before something bad happens to them," Dark finished his explanation to the Niwa household.

"You and Krad, separated, Daisuke and Satoshi in that pendant, my poor boy!!" Emiko cried, clutching Kosuke's shirt front.

"Yeah, it's very tragic, now have you seen Wiz anywhere? We think he might have the pendant."

"Yes, when he came home without you we were worried, so we went out searching for you. He was badly hurt, hopefully he's healed enough for you to take with you," Kosuke said, getting up off the couch and showing Dark to Wiz.

"Oh man, Wiz," Dark said sadly, looking down at his familiar.

"Kyuu…" Wiz uttered weakly, looking up at Dark.

"Poor, poor Wiz, don't worry, I'll get Krad for this, but…Wiz, do you know where that pendant is?" Dark asked, cradling his familiar.

"Kyuu."

"You don't know either?" Dark sighed. "This is gonna be tough."

"Kyu kyu."

"What? Who?"

"Kyu."

"Some lady? That's kind of vague, Wiz." Dark sighed and took Wiz with him to find Krad.

"Well, did you find anything out?" Krad asked from the shadows.

"Yeah, some lady took the pendant, the description was kind of vague with Wiz in this state," Dark said angrily, glaring at his alter ego.

"Well you shouldn't have let it attack me, Dark," Krad said, stepping out of the shadows to face him.

"Kyu!!" Wiz cried and buried itself closer to Dark.

"Don't worry, Wiz, we're in the same boat and we're working together," Dark informed Wiz, still glaring at Krad.

"Hmph. Don't look at me like that, Dark. Now let's go, this rodent certainly can't help us any," Krad stated, and turned to walk away.

PUNCH!!

Krad stood stunned as a rushing pain flooded his right cheek. His hand slowly reached up to his reddened cheek, and he winced at the touch. Turning his head, he saw Dark standing there severely pissed off, one hand clenched at his side.

"Don't you _ever _call Wiz a rodent or touch him again, or I _swear_, next time it won't be a punch in the face," Dark seethed.

Krad swallowed the lump that had gathered itself in his throat, and blinked away the bit of water that had collected in his eyes. Clearing his throat, he turned and walked away from Dark, not daring to glance at his enraged face again.

Dark snapped out of his rage and realized what he had done, and the hurt expression on Krad's face. Wiz 'kyu'ed quietly and Dark ran to catch up with his erstwhile partner.

"Krad, I'm sorry I lost my temper, but I don't like you treating Wiz like that and…"

"It doesn't matter now, does it? What's done is done. I think we should start back at the museum, there might be a clue there." Krad opened his wings and, without looking back, launched himself into the air.

"I'm sorry," Dark whispered, and called out his own wings to follow the angel.


	5. I Never Knew You Were Suicidal

**MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope you all had as good a Christmas as I did. As promised, here is the next chapter, I hope you all enjoy it! This is my Christmas present to you! (And if you don't celebrate Christmas, then this is my belated Hanukkah slash early Kwanzaa slash early New Year's present!)**

**Okay, so this was supposed to be up a week ago, but for some fucked up reason the site wouldn't let me upload it. So here it is, just in time for New Years!**

* * *

Krad landed on the rooftop of the museum, glancing behind him to find that Dark was still on his way. Krad walked over to the door and entered, closing it behind him…not noticing the click as it locked back up.

Krad's cheek started to throb a bit and he placed his cool hand on it. He looked down at the ground as the event came back to him.

_I can't believe he did that, I never knew he was capable of doing something like that…it was my fault, but still… _Krad thought as he walked to the case where the pendant had been. Krad stood staring at the same spot, before he finally shook his head to clear those thoughts out of his head.

_What happened, happened! There is no changing it, and if Dark hates me that much, then I guess the feeling is mutual! _Krad thought angrily and glared at the case.

Something in the corner of the room caught his attention and he turned just as it lunged at him, unleashing silver claws with its momentum.

—

—

—

Dark finally reached the museum, Wiz completely tired out and sleeping in his arms. Dark cradled him carefully and glanced around, Krad nowhere to be seen.

_Hmph, must've gone inside without me. Well, actually, I don't blame him, after I punched him like that… _Dark thought gloomily, and grabbed the handle of the door…but it didn't budge.

_Huh. Would he really leave me out here like that? _Dark thought, trying again.

He heard something behind him and instinctively dodged just as a white feather hit the door. Dark saw it and gasped. _Krad?! _Dark turned around and saw the white angel standing there with that smirk of his.

"Krad?! What the Hell do you think you're doing?!" Dark yelled at him, falling into a defensive position.

"Hmph, you would dare ask me that, you really are as dumb as you act. I can do this myself, you would just be in the way, and I don't trust you to just go home, you would follow me around like a little puppy, so I might as well kill you now!" Krad said and attacked Dark again.

Dark dodged and set Wiz down where he wouldn't get hurt, then turned to face off against Krad.

"Krad, what is wrong with you? Is this because I punched you?! Look, I said I was sorry about that!" Dark tried to get through as Krad attacked him relentlessly with fists and feet.

"Hn, you don't actually believe that talking to me would help you do you? It's pointless, like your existence!" Krad yelled and brought a feather out just as Dark did, and they fought feather to feather.

"You are still weak, you can't defeat me, now give up and die quickly or I will enjoy the pain that I will put you through," Krad stated cockily and cut Dark's cheek with the feather.

"So this was your plan the whole time, it figures!" Dark growled and kicked Krad in the chest, making him hit the museum door and break it open.

Dark ran inside and glanced around. No sign of Krad anywhere.

_Great Dark, good move, now he has _tons _of places to hide and attack from, smooth, really smooth, _Dark thought, continuing to watch every shadow as if it could lunge at him any moment.

Up ahead there was a flash of white, then a yell. Dark ran up to the area, but was thrown back by the blond that stood there.

"Ah, ah, ah, I'm right here idiot," Krad said and lunged again with the feather.

Dark glared and fought him, silently summoning up magic. Without warning, Dark shot Krad and forced him back into the open area. Dark ran in, and what he saw stopped him dead in his tracks and made his eyes widen.

There was Krad, where he had shot him, but then, there was another Krad, fighting _another _Krad. Dark stood there dumbfounded. _Three _Krads. How could there be _three_, when he could hardly handle _one_?

The Krad Dark had hit got up and got into a defensive stance. Then the Krad that was fighting the third Krad was thrown next to Dark, and the Krad that hit Krad stood next to the defending Krad and got ready to attack, but for some reason that Krad had really long nails.

Shocked, Dark could do nothing but stare. The two Krads smirked and lunged at him, successfully slashing his chest and arm. Gasping from new and old pain, Dark fell to his knees and glanced up, watching the two Krads come closer. Then Krad #3 ran into them and attacked the Krad with long nails.

"Dark, you imbecile, what do you think you're doing, just letting these things kill you? I never knew you were suicidal, now come on and _help _me!" He yelled.

Dark got up and saw all of the Krads were lined up in a relatively straight row. With a small amount of guilt, Dark summoned a huge amount of energy and threw it at all of the Krads, successfully hitting all three. All but one changed into creatures—one looked like an alien, the other a wizard, and they fell defeated. The real Krad still stood, grasping his arm. He glanced up at him with one of his small trademark smirks, then fell unconscious. Dark was there to grab him before he hit the ground.

"Krad? Krad, wake up! Come on Krad, get your ass up now!" Dark yelled, slapping the blonde's face.

No response. Dark felt his guilt come on full blast. He sighed and picked up the blond, hissing as the cloth and pressure hit his wounds. Ignoring it, he started walking outside, but something fallen from one of the creatures caught his attention. It looked like a blue shard of some kind. Shrugging, Dark grabbed it and then walked back outside to Wiz. Wiz was shaking and attached itself to Dark the moment it saw him.

"Hey Wiz, yeah I'm ok, but Krad…" Dark trailed off as he stared at Krad.

"What do you think we should do Wiz, should we go back to Emiko's?" Dark asked Wiz.

Wiz nodded his head furiously. "Kyu kyu kyu!!"

Dark glanced down at Krad's bloodstained blond hair and face.

"Emiko is _not _going to like this one bit," he sighed. Wiz jumped on top of the unconscious blonde's stomach, Dark spread his wings, and they flew off back to Emiko's.

—

—

—

"Milady, it would seem that Derk and ZeKern have failed you." The servant bowed.

"They were weak, at least I don't have to deal with them anymore, but…they got the shard then?"

"Yes Milady."

"Damn. Oh well, it is only one of thirteen, and they can't get them all." An annoying shrill laughter filled the sky as the owner watched Dark fly off.


	6. Their Predicament Suddenly Gets Worse

"No, no, no, and again NO!" Emiko growled at Dark as he walked through the house carrying a still unconscious Krad.

"Emiko, sorry for saying this, but SHUT UP!!" Kosuke yelled, quieting her for only a moment.

"But Kosuke, the enemy is _inside our house_, what if he tries to do something?" Emiko asked, glaring down as Krad was lowered to the couch.

"Emiko, look at him! He is in no condition to fight us, and besides, we can't get Daisuke back if he doesn't help. Just think, there might be more of those creatures later on, Dark won't be able to fight them all," Emiko's father announced reluctantly.

Emiko sighed. "I know you're right, but father, he's _evil _and he could…"

"Would you all just shut up?! If you hadn't noticed, we're _both _injured and would just like some rest, but you are keeping us from that, so if you don't mind…_leave_!!" Dark glared at the three arguing humans as he sat himself next to the blonde.

"But…" Emiko started, but Kosuke dragged her out of the room before she had a chance to continue.

"We'll send some tea later," Daiki said, and left the two alone.

Dark sighed and glanced down at the unconscious figure on the couch. Wiz jumped into his master's lap and let Dark pet him for comfort.

_God, Krad, what happened back there? That was, well, for me, pretty terrifying. I hope nothing like that'll ever happen again, I don't want to hurt you again._

"Kyu?" Wiz asked, nuzzling into Dark's hand.

"Aw Wiz, I hurt him, and I didn't mean to this time. Arg, this is so confusing! I wish things would go back to the way they were."

"Do you really want that?" A voice whispered raspily below him.

Dark jumped and glanced down, watching as Krad's golden eyes slowly slid open.

"Krad! You're awake!! That's great, um, sorry about what happened back there, I didn't mean to—"

"Dark…"

"Yeah?"

"Forget it. You did the only thing your one-track mind could think of, and thankfully, it worked, so do me a favor and shut up already." Krad's voice cracked a bit as the last bit came out.

"Krad, are you ok?" Dark asked and reached out to the blonde.

"I'll be fine, even if it does hurt a lot more when you're the only one in the body. Remember, we aren't human, I'll be fine in a day or so, just…let me…rest a bit…." Krad mumbled and went unconscious again.

"Jesus, this guy'll give you a heart attack. Or a need for anger management counseling. Maybe both," Dark mumbled, and Wiz 'kyu'd in agreement.

"Dark?" Daiki asked as he walked in with a tray of food and tea.

"Won't let Emiko in here, huh?" Dark asked with amusement dancing in his eyes.

"We're afraid she might try to assassinate Krad in his sleep. Anyway, here's some tea, and a little food." Grandfather set the tray down and watched Wiz jump on the strawberries that were there specifically for him.

"Is there anything wrong, Dark?"

"Huh? Oh, no, not really, other than the obvious anyway. I guess I said something out loud and Krad replied to it, and I guess it got me thinking, and…well…"

"Go on."

"I told myself I just wanted things to go back to normal, but then we'd still be inside Daisuke and Satoshi trying to kill each other, and I don't know for sure, but I think Krad is kind of changing a bit." Dark picked up his mug and took a drink of the hot liquid.

"Well, have to rescue the two boys first, we can figure out what to do then," Daiki said and started to get up, but something on the table stopped him.

"Dark…where did you get that?" He asked, pointing at the shard that Dark had taken out of his pocket.

"What, this? I got it off one of those creatures we fought, why?" Dark asked.

"It is a sacred artifact, a shard from the Mirror of Desire. If we can get the whole mirror, it could make it much easier to get Daisuke and Satoshi out of that pendant!" Daiki said excitedly, making Dark smile.

"Great, so then all we need is the mirror, that should be easy enough."

"Not as easy as you think. That mirror was shattered and the shards were scattered everywhere, you need to collect 12 more shards in order to finish the mirror."

"13 shards total, huh? Well, with help, I guess we could get them all, but what about the pendant? Don't we still need it?"

"Yes, but this mirror will at least let us talk to them. You have tonight to heal up, tomorrow you begin the hunt for the shards," Daiki said, and left Dark to his thoughts.

"Well, did you hear that Krad? We get to go shard hunting! Hurry up and get better, 'cause this is gonna get good." Dark lay down on the other couch. His last thought was, _Tomorrow's gonna be crazy. _And darkness overtook him.

—

—

—

The next morning found Krad and Dark standing outside the Niwa household with Emiko fussing over Dark and threatening Krad to take care of him, in response to which he just snorted. The two other males stood to the side rolling their eyes at Emiko's antics.

"Emiko, please, they need to get going. We'll keep you informed when we find a shard of the mirror," Kosuke said, moving up beside her and pinning her arms to her side.

"Hn, and how do you intend you do that?" Krad asked snidely, crossing his arms and glancing to the side.

"Oh, that's right! Here, take this with you." Kosuke pulled out a cell phone and handed it over to Krad.

"Hey! Why'd you give it to him instead of me?" Dark asked.

"Because you'd probably lose it or break it." Kosuke laughed at Dark's pouting expression.

"He's right, you know," Krad informed him, a slight smirk slowly forming.

"No fair," Dark mumbled and spread his wings in preparation for flight, followed by Krad. They both leapt into the air, heading for their first stop.

—

—

—

"Hmm," Satoshi 'hmmed' for the 12,098th time.

"Sato-kun, I don't mean to be rude, but could you PLEASE stop with the 'hm'ing!!" Daisuke growled as he floated upside down beside Satoshi.

Satoshi blinked and looked away abashedly at being caught. Daisuke sighed and flipped himself upright.

"Sato-kun, it's been who knows how long. We've practically tried _everything_ to get out, it's just not going to work, so would you please try to relax?" Daisuke said pessimistically.

"That's not like you Dai-kun. Not that long ago you kept on cheering, and saying that we'd get out of here in no time. What's brought this on?" Satoshi asked, concerned for his usually happy friend.

"It's just….I feel like….I just feel really tired, that's all," Daisuke mumbled, floating away from Satoshi, but the blue-haired boy caught his arm. He looked up to see Satoshi frowning at him.

"Tired? But you just woke up…um, not long ago," Satoshi surmised, not knowing exactly what time it was in the dark void.

"I know, but I've just been really tired lately, and I don't know why. I sleep really well, so…"

_Good morning__, gentlemen_," a feminine voice resounded in the darkness, causing a squeak to come from Daisuke and Satoshi to glare into the darkness.

"Who's there?" He growled out, blinking when he realized he just sounded like Krad.

"_How is your stay here in this void of nothingness? Comfortable?_" The voice taunted, ignoring the question and just making Satoshi angrier.

"What do you want?"

"_I want to live. Being cursed to forever stay inside the pendant you are currently residing in is really dull, and it drives one mad I find. But, unfortunately for you, I can only live on the outside while feeding off your life energy, which, might I add, the redhead has quite a lot of._"

Daisuke gasped and clung tighter to Satoshi. Satoshi's eyes crackled with fury.

"Leave Daisuke alone!!"

"_Umm…no. Well, as fun as it was to torment you, I do believe someone has just called my attention. Goodbye, dearies._" And the voice didn't speak again.

Satoshi growled ferally as the voice left. He turned his head and his gaze softened at the tearstained face of Daisuke. Satoshi turned around and held him tight, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

—

—

—

"Milady, it appears that the two halves have departed for the Museum of Pharos," a servant reported.

"They already found out where to look? Damn! Singred, Zatch, Cerberus! Come forth and serve me!" She ordered, and three figures soon formed in front of her.

"Your command, milady?" Zatch asked.

"Get rid of Dark and Krad. Make sure they don't get the shards. Stop them _now_!" She hissed. The three bowed and disappeared.

"They won't succeed, I'll make sure of _that_!" She chuckled.

—

—

—

Miles away, Dark and Krad landed on top of the Museum of Pharos. Dark stumbled a bit and caught Wiz as he fell.

"You're so slow, Dark," Krad commented, and Dark turned to glare at him.

"It's not _my _fault that I'm slow," Dark mumbled as he placed Wiz on his shoulder and walked up to Krad.

Krad rolled his eyes and walked up to the back door. Dark followed him, muttering about evil stupid blonde angels. Ignoring him, Krad tried to open the door, but it was locked. Turning to Dark he crossed his arms and looked at him expectantly.

Dark raised an eyebrow, glanced at the closed door, and then looked back at Krad, completely confused.

"What?"

Krad shook his head despairingly and lightly slapped Dark upside the head. Dark growled and rubbed his head while Krad sighed.

"Would you open the door?" Krad finally voiced.

"Oh. Why didn't you just say so?" Dark asked with a shrug, pulling out some lockpicks and beginning to work on the door.

"Because I figured you would be smart enough to figure it out. Locked door, waiting Krad. What more of a hint do you need?" Krad asked as he watched Dark work, almost fascinated as his slim fingers moved expertly.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever," Dark muttered, and smiled as the door clicked. "Tada!" Dark stood, ready for applause.

"Right, let's go." Krad walked inside. Dark pouted for a second, cheated of his triumphant moment, but followed him in. The door closed behind them.


	7. I Didn't Ask For Your Opinion

It was dark inside the museum. Dark had tried to insist on sending out warning notes, but Krad firmly squashed that notion, pointing out that they weren't stealing whole pieces, just little parts of them, and besides, what would be the point? It was strictly breaking-and-entering. Get in, get the shards, get out—hopefully with no one the wiser.

It made Dark cranky. "I hate stealing when no one knows I'm doing it," he grumbled as they made their way through the museum, him in the lead so that they could avoid the traps that always littered a museum when closed. He hopped over an invisible something, and Krad carefully followed, choosing not to ask what it was. "And I suppose we aren't splitting up, are we, since you can't get through the traps unscathed."

"Did you seriously just say unscathed?" Krad asked. "Wow. Going for the big vocabulary there, Dark."

Wiz, channeling his master's anger, turned his head and growled at the blonde angel, who growled right back. "Why did the rod—the rabbit have to come?"

"Because he's useful. He can change into all sorts of people and things, and he's not bad in a fight when the opponent isn't a crazy homicidal psycho-killer who just happens to be your alter-ego."

Krad's step faltered. "Is that really what you think of me?" He kept emotion out of his voice, only allowing clinical curiosity to sound. He did _not_ want Dark to know that his words had cut deeply.

Dark sighed. "No. I'm just cranky and in pain and worried about Daisuke. Don't listen to me. If I say something really stupid, you have my permission to bring me down a notch."

"Or three," Krad muttered.

Dark's mouth twitched. _I guess I really was annoying him._

They were now approaching the room where Daiki had told them a shard was, and Dark unconsciously slowed. If they were going to get attacked again, this was where it would happen. _Thank god we turned off the power before entering. This would be even harder with the motion sensors and heat sensors and hidden cameras and all the other shit. Goddamnit! It's so much harder when you've got to worry about a whole other person, at the same time as not setting off any alarms. Usually I can just get in and not worry about setting off any alarms, because the stupid police are running around setting them off for me._

_And the quiet's kinda getting to me too…_ Dark shivered, and pushed the door to the desired room open. Violet eyes glancing around nervously, he walked carefully into the room, Krad at his back.

"Do you sense it anywhere?" Krad breathed into his ear, making Dark shiver again, but for a completely different reason.

"No," he whispered back, turning his head so Krad could hear him. "Daiki said we'd be able to sense the magic in them, but I don't sense anything like tha—"

Krad suddenly gripped his shoulder and shoved him to the ground. Dark let out a startled gasp as he hit the floor, and rolled to see Krad…bound? It looked that way, but Dark couldn't see what was binding him. It looked like he was struggling with thin air. Well, Dark had seen weirder things in his lifetime and didn't need Krad's shouted warning to roll out of the way and leap to his feet, Wiz tumbling off his shoulder with a squeal as he tried to locate the enemy.

It wasn't hard to spot him…her…it. A slightly glowing, transparent blue floating creature was rather hard to miss, actually. Especially when it spoke. "I know you. You are the phantom thief created from a work of art. And this is your lover? The other half of your art piece? He seems to be very loyal to you, considering the way he pushed you out of the way and took my bind himself." Its voice was high, fluting, and whispery, reminding him of wind through a grove of trees.

"_What?!_" Dark could not believe his ears. "Krad's not my lover." Although the idea wasn't as repulsive to him as it could have been… "We are part of the same art piece, but we're just working together for now. Who the hell are _you_?"

The creature smiled. At least, Dark assumed it did, because it didn't seem to have a concrete form. "Ahhh. My apologies. My name is Singred." Its hand gestured, and Dark instinctively leapt out of the way. A dull thump was heard as…something…hit the floor where he had been standing. "You're a fast one," it mused. Its voice now reminded him of wind howling through tall buildings. "But I doubt you're fast enough."

Krad suddenly spoke. "Dark, it's an air demon! If you can cut off its supply of outside air, it'll disappear!"

Dark was currently hopping around the room, trying to avoid the invisible blasts and ropes of air Singred was throwing at him. "Why don't I just seal it instead?" He shouted back over the rushing wind.

"A seal won't work, baka! It's not an art piece!"

"A seal can work the same as an exorcism, if you use the right one!" Dark drew out a feather and suddenly changed direction, bounding fast towards Krad. Singred shrieked in rage as Dark raised the feather and brought it slashing down through the ropes of wind holding Krad still. They broke and dissipated, and Krad dashed as fast as he could to the side.

"Little thieves, you are starting to annoy me," the demon hissed.

"Krad, I'm gonna need your help to do it!" Dark shouted. "I don't think I can seal it by myself! It's too strong!"

"But I don't know what to do!" Krad shouted back, dodging behind a huge statue. He growled, pressing his hands and forehead against the back. Running annoyed him. He couldn't _stand_ running.

"Doesn't matter! I do!" Dark slid in next to him and grabbed his hands. Then he paused, eyes widening. "Magic…I sense magic, Krad! I think it's the shard!"

"Well that's all well and good, but we're not exactly in a position to grab it—!" Krad pointed out, falling to the ground and jerking Dark down on top of him. The knife of air that was aiming for them hit the statue instead, and the huge thing actually _rocked._

"That's not too good," Dark observed, and was up and running again, yanking Krad with him. "I need you to make sure I stay safe while I cast it! And you need to remain in contact with me, okay?"

"Fine. Just do it fast." He was going to have his work cut out for him, guarding two people while keeping hold of Dark's hand. He wondered for a moment why the demon wasn't doing more to stop them exorcising it, then figured that it couldn't have heard them over all the whistling and shrieking the wind was doing.

Dark pulled out another feather and began muttering quietly. Krad felt a strange pull begin around his navel, but couldn't stop to think about it as the air demon shimmered into existence right behind them.

"Ahhh, how sweet. The lovers have decided to die together."

"We are _not_ lovers," Krad growled, "and no one's going to die here tonight. Least of all us." He yanked Dark out of the way, and Dark fell into his arms, now wholly caught up in his spell-casting. Krad felt the pull increase, and suddenly didn't want to let Dark go.

Dark's eyes snapped open and caught his. Krad stopped breathing for a moment, trapped in the glowing pools of violet that gazed back. Dark's voice rose in the last line of the mantra.

Singred screamed, realizing what they were doing. "No! I won't! You can't make me!"

Neither of the angels heard it, both too caught up in each other. Krad unconsciously began mouthing the words along with Dark, then spoke the last word with him as Singred, only a foot from them as it tried to stop the exorcism, suddenly…popped out of existence.

Dark's eyes rolled up and he collapsed.

Krad swore as he caught the falling kaito, laying him gently on the floor and kneeling next to him. "Dark, you idiot, what did you do? Seals don't take that kind of energy out of you." He looked up and scowled. Stalking over to the huge wooden statue he had hidden behind, he stood in front of it and studied it. Dark said the shard was in here somewhere…

He studied it carefully, extending his own awareness of magical energy to see if he could pinpoint it exactly. There! He moved closer and stared into the face. Catching a glimmer of blue, he placed his hand on the nose and called to the shard. It glowed, then removed itself and floated into his hand. He turned, and, grinning, went to kneel by Dark again. Wiz crept out of hiding and settled on Dark's chest, looking up at Krad's face with red eyes.

"Good in a fight, my ass. You didn't do jack shit to help us. Dark, you bastard, wake up."

"Sh't up…Lemme sleep…" Dark mumbled, swatting away the hand that Krad had placed on his shoulder to shake him awake. Krad smiled, and had to bite his lip to keep from laughing aloud. Jesus! Laughing? He never laughed. Damn Dark. No one was allowed to be that cute.

"Dark, if you don't get your lazy ass up in the next thirty seconds, I will sit here and insult you steadily in three different languages. We still have two shards to get before we can leave, and considering that this one was guarded, the others will be too."

"No insulting!" Dark's eyes flew open and he groaned. "I hate you."

"Love you too. Get up, we've gotta get going." Krad bit his lip again. Where the fuck had that come from!? He didn't love Dark. He didn't even _like_ him. At least he had said it in a sarcastic tone of voice.

"Fine, fine." Dark sat up slowly, causing Wiz to dig his claws into the front of his shirt to keep from falling. "Wiz, you're gonna have to let go, I hope you know that." Wiz slid down into his lap. "You got the shard?"

Krad held up the blue piece of glass.

"Yay. Let's go. The other two are in the same room, right?" He groaned as he tried to stand up, and Krad gripped his arm and took some of his weight as he stumbled. "God, I ache all over. If there're other demons there, I don't know if I'll be able to send them away."

"I'll be able to do it with you," Krad said. "I know the words now."

Dark turned to stare at him. "You learned the words after hearing them once?"

Krad shrugged. "I remember that sort of thing." The words were branded into his memory like fire, dancing across the inside of his lids whenever he closed his eyes. He couldn't forget them if he _tried._

"Oh. Well, that's good." Dark groaned as his wings unfurled themselves from his back. "I'm gonna fly there, 'kay? It's easier that way."

"Just hope the rooms are big enough for your wings. We are indoors, remember."

"Pessimist."

"Realist," Krad corrected, and followed suit. His white wings stretched and shook, scattering a few feathers around. "Let's get going, I want to get out of here."

—

—

—

"Dark, you fool!" Krad screamed, watching with wide eyes as Dark was hit head on with a fireball and blasted away, spinning through the air until he hit the marble wall with a crunch. The dark figure dropped like a stone.

Krad growled ferally, his golden eyes beginning to glow, and he yanked two feathers out and tossed them into the air. They arrowed through the room and attached themselves to…two things, Krad wasn't sure what, but at least they now knew where the shards were even if his feathers couldn't bring them back to him. Two more feathers followed the first two in quick succession, but these two were for a completely different purpose. They distracted the two demons they had found guarding the shards while Krad flew to his partner.

"Dark, _you idiot!_ I can't get rid of two demons by myself! And I _told_ you to be careful, Cerberus is a _fire_ demon! Now get your lazy ass up and help me!" _I am getting far too worked up over him getting hurt. What is it with me and helping him when he's hurt lately?_

Dark raised his head and flashed a smile. "I think we might have made a mistake leaving the Shire, Pippin."

Krad stared at him.

"What. The. Fuck."

Dark shook his head and stood up, wincing slightly but otherwise seeming to be in good shape. Thank god his wings had vanished when he hit the wall, or they would have been broken. "Sorry, couldn't resist. It's a quote from the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Dai made me watch it with him a while ago, poor guy's obsessed with the series."

After staring for a few moments, Krad decided that maybe the fall had made Dark a little more loopy than usual. "Oookay. Whatever. Let's just seal these two and get done."

"Roger that, captain." Dark flashed him a wide grin and spread his wings. Then he frowned. "What did you say the demon's name was?"

"Cerberus. A fire demon of the third level."

"How do you know that?"

Krad avoided eye contact and launched himself into the air. "We've met before."

Dark raised an eyebrow and followed, willing to let it go for now. "What about the other one? The electric demon?"

"No idea. I've never met an electric demon before."

"My name is Zatch, little artworks," a voice crackled behind them, and the two angels dived instantly, a lightning bolt sizzling through the air where they had just been. Apparently Krad's feathers hadn't done much to slow it down.

"I've put feathers on the shards!" Krad shouted. "Find one, I'll find the other, and let's get the fuck out of here!"

Dark disappeared from his side, and Krad curled in one wing, slipping through the air and arrowing toward where he could sense one of his feathers hovering. Then he braked furiously and darted off, eyes wide at his narrow escape. The electric apparition may not have had much trouble escaping the feather, but the fire demon was having more problems extracting itself from the white binds caging it in, and Krad had nearly flown right into it, which would have freed the demon on impact.

Now flying toward (he hoped) the correct feather, he could faintly hear Dark's voice taunting the electric demon at the top of his lungs over the shrieks of rage and explosions of lightning bolts hitting —most likely— priceless artifacts.

_Well, at least Dark's fine._ Krad saw his feather glowing ahead of him and sped up, his wings beating powerfully as he tried to locate the shard precisely on the Egyptian statue of a goddess. At her feet was a plaque, with several words written on it. One was larger than the others.

BASTET

_Must be a warrior or sun goddess,_ Krad mused in a small part of his brain, and landed in front of it. In a moment he had removed the rather large shard from within the woman's left eye, appropriated his feather, and taken flight again. _Hope Dark's ready to go._

"…And you really need to do something about your skin, mate, I mean come on, don't you ever use lotion?"

Dark was apparently having far too much fun in this potentially life-threatening situation.

Krad took the time to ascertain that Dark had actually _gotten _the other shard before entering his little taunting session and whipping past, grabbing the kaito's arm, and speeding for the nearest window. Unfortunately it was quite a ways down the hall. An energy ball ensuring it 'opened' for them, the two angels passed through the smoke, shattered glass, and bits of rubble and into the clear night air, breathing a simultaneous sigh of relief.

Then Dark turned to Krad. "You know, grabbing's very rude, especially when the person's in the middle of a conversation."

Krad raised an eyebrow. "You weren't in a conversation. Taunting someone is not considered a conversation."

Dark pouted. "And you didn't even let me break the window myself."

Apparently Dark thought that glass cuts were something that happened to other people.

"You are an idiot."

"An idiot who knows we're going to have trouble in about three point two seconds," Dark pointed out, and swooped out of the way.

A lightning bolt split the air between the two. Krad shielded his eyes in the crook of his elbow, and still the light burned; the smell of sulfur filled his nose, and he tumbled through the air end over end, ears ringing from the proximity of the blast. Catching himself, he spread his wings and flipped upright, looking desperately for Dark. They needed to seal these bastards and leave, the police and other unsavory people would be showing up any moment.

A dark shadow swooped down and caught him in a fierce hug. Dark's voice raised in the first words of the seal right next to the blonde angel's ear, and he quickly added his voice to the spell, wrapping his arms around his partner and filing away the fact that Dark smelled like cinnamon for later perusal.

They hung there in the air, their wings beating slowly, and Krad thanked god that it was not a long spell, for the two demons, both royally pissed off and both very strong, were heading toward them. And then, with a rather large flash of light, they vanished, followed by the sound of a door closing—presumably the gateway to the demonic realm.

Dark sighed and opened his eyes, staring into Krad's golden orbs only a few centimeters away. He smiled crookedly. "I'm going to collapse now."

And he did. Krad took his weight, his own pain-filled body protesting and threatening its own imminent collapse. The exhausted white wings fluttered as he spiraled toward the ground, trying to find the park where they had promised to meet Daiki and Kosuke through eyes going blurry with exhaustion.

He couldn't find it in time, and as the buildings rose up ever closer he chose one that looked completely dark. With the last of his strength he made a relatively controlled landing on the roof, falling to his knees and then to the ground under the weight of the unconscious kaito. He wrapped his wings protectively around them, cocooning the two of them in warmth, and, as darkness swallowed him, thought, _I hope they'll be able to find us._


	8. Truly Pathetic

Satoshi looked down worriedly. Daisuke was very pale, and sleeping most of the time now. The blue-haired boy felt some of the pull himself, but as the voice had pointed out, Daisuke had far more life force than he did. Swallowing his pride, he clenched his eyes tight and did something he had promised himself he'd never do.

"_Krad, I don't know if you can hear me, but WE NEED YOUR HELP! WE'LL DIE SOON IF YOU CAN'T GET US OUT!! I don't even know if you're looking, or if you're even alive, but Daisuke will die if you and Dark don't get us out. So please, please hurry."_

He sighed and opened his eyes, feeling a faint headache throbbing at the border of his consciousness from the force with which he had projected the thought. Asking Krad for help was something he just did not do, and yet he hoped pathetically that the two angels would save them.

He sighed, and curled up around Daisuke. His arms went around the still frame protectively. _"Please come…soon…"_

He fell asleep soon afterward, not aware that on the material plane, the two angels were laying in the exact same position.

—

—

—

Warmth, and pain. Those were the only two things Dark knew as he fought his way back to consciousness. Forcing his eyes open, he found that he couldn't see anything. Very well, he'd figure out where he was some other way.

Someone was breathing slowly and deeply very close to him, so close that he could feel their breath stirring his hair. All right. He was close to someone, apparently wrapped in their arms. He could deal with that.

A careful movement of his fingers found feathers under his hands. Okay, so his first guess was correct. He and Krad were wrapped together, and Krad's wings were protecting them from the hard ground and the outside world. Dark smiled sleepily and snuggled closer, feeling safe and content exactly where he was. Krad shifted and pulled him even closer, tucking his head under the blonde's chin, and Dark breathed in Krad's scent, a mix of musk and fresh air with a very small undercurrent of danger. In his pain-filled haze Dark didn't question what danger smelled like, only that it smelled like Krad.

His brow knit very faintly as a thought floated to the surface, and he mustered his energy and sent up a large, bright glowing ball of light so Kosuke could find them. It depleted him nearly completely, and he welcomed the darkness back with relief as the pain increased.

—

—

—

The first thing Dark noticed as he woke for the second time was that he was lying on something soft. The second thing he noticed was that he and Krad were still tangled together.

The third thing he noticed was that he and Krad were topless.

His eyes sprang open, and judging by the light in the room, it was late morning. Krad's wings had disappeared into his body, nonverbally acknowledging that he felt unthreatened in this environment. He was still sleeping quietly. Dark took note that his wings too had folded up, and the fact that his hands and body had various bandages decorating it. At least Kosuke and Daiki (he was hoping that was who had found them) had left them their pants.

With little else to do, he studied Krad's face. He couldn't get up even if he had wanted to; Krad had him firmly in his grasp, his body was too weak to support him, and besides, he liked lying there. It made him feel protected, safe. It was nice to not have to be the one protecting for once.

He closed his eyes and simply rested, content to drift, until Krad stirred. The purple eyes popped back open, disappointment nestled deep within them. Now this lovely snuggling would come to an end. Sighing, he waited for the inevitable explosion.

It didn't come. Dark looked up to meet Krad's eyes, and they were definitely open and aware. "Any idea where we are?" Krad asked in a low voice, the deep, up-close rumbling sending shivers through Dark.

"Not a bloody clue," he murmured back. "I just hope it was Daiki and Kosuke who found us."

"Yeah, me too. If it was anyone else, probably the first people through that door are going to be policemen."

Dark's eyes lit up, and he grinned. "Policemen? I know _all_ about policemen. I can deal with them, easy."

Krad raised an eyebrow, and managed a small smirk. "Dark, can you even conjure a light?"

Dark tried, and failed. "Well…no…but if I could move, I could deal with the policemen." He sighed and closed his eyes, laying his head back down on the pillow. "Actually I'm surprised you're not freaking out about this situation we found ourselves in."

A chuckle communicated itself through Krad's chest and into Dark's. "Dark, I can't move either." He yawned. "I'm surprised the sealing took so much out of us. Are you okay?"

"Think so." Dark yawned too, and cursed the fact that they were contagious. "But you know, we've been fighting pretty much nonstop for the past three days. Maybe it's not so surprising that we're so exhausted."

Krad hummed agreement, his body relaxing as well. "I hope we get a few days off…"

—

—

—

The two angels slept for the rest of the day and the next night, only waking up occasionally to eat soup and change their bandages, assisted by the two men of the Niwa family—who had, they were glad to find out, found them and spirited them away to a safe place.

The next day Dark woke up and stretched, feeling completely rejuvenated and without pain of any kind. The bed was empty, and he looked around, panic briefly setting in before he heard the quiet voices of Krad and Kosuke coming from the kitchen. Relieved—he had gotten far too used to having Krad only an arm's length away—he slid out of bed and padded, barefoot, to the doorway.

Krad and Kosuke were bent over what looked like blueprints, which were spread across the kitchen table. Krad sensed his presence and looked up quickly, almost smiling before looking back down. Kosuke looked up and said, "Oh good, you're up and looking fine. I wish I could heal as fast as you two do; it's simply amazing."

Dark laughed softly as he walked in and stepped up next to Krad, looking down at the blueprints. "We're not human, Kosuke-kun, don't forget. We feel, think, and do just about everything the same as humans, but we're not human. What are you looking at?"

"We're trying to plot our path into the Museum of Culture," Krad told him, shifting away just slightly. Dark looked just a little too inviting without his shirt on for him to keep his cool that close to the dark-haired thief.

Dark considered the blueprints, then pointed. "Here. We'll go in here, then along here. There won't be any out-of-the-ordinary traps because they won't be expecting us. I can shut down the security cameras easy, we can be in and out within an hour if we're lucky. All three shards are in the same room, right?"

"According to our information."

"Perfect." Dark grinned.

"I don't like that grin at all," Krad observed. He actually did like it; it looked very sexy on Dark. But it also made him feel nervous, and he didn't like that. He was completely unused to the many emotions flooding his psyche on a daily basis.

"You don't have to like it," Dark said airily. "Just know that it'll bring about a good outcome…for you." He winked at the other angel.

Krad swallowed hard, trying to keep his surprise off his face. He might be hallucinating or otherwise incapacitated, but it almost seemed like Dark was _flirting_ with him. At least, that's what Krad assumed it was, never having experienced it himself before and never having noticed it being done to his tamers either. He'd only ever seen it through his tamer's eyes as the kids around them flirted with their chosen boy or girl, and always felt disdain for their worthless unneeded feelings.

_Okay, I really need to figure out what's going on between me and Dark. What the fuck is he doing? Flirting with me?_ Krad shook his head. _That's impossible. Why would Dark flirt with me? We've hated each other for 400 years. Besides, I don't want him to flirt with me anyway._

"I think we need to hurry up and get the rest of the shards. I have this feeling that the boys are in trouble and need our help like now," Dark said, rubbing his forehead bemusedly.

Startled out of his thoughts, Krad looked up. "I feel the same way. As if Satoshi really needs our help."

"Good, then maybe it's not just me being paranoid. How are you feeling?" Dark asked Krad.

"I feel fine," Krad answered, nonplussed. No one had ever asked him that before.

"Excellent! Think we can get in a little shard stealing today?" Dark asked, turning gleaming eyes on Kosuke.

Kosuke laughed. "I suppose we could attack the Museum of Culture, if you two are sure you feel up to it."

"Yes! Most definitely! Woohoo! Let's go!" Dark shouted excitedly, bouncing around the room. Krad put a hand on his shoulder as he bounced close to him and forced him to stand still.

"Yes, I think I'm up for that. Another three shards to gather, and then we'll be over halfway complete. We're behind because Dark and I needed to rest. It will not happen again."

Dark snorted. "There you go again with all the serious and cold shit. Loosen up! It won't kill you! Hasn't killed me yet! I'm still very much alive!" And just to prove it, he tweaked Krad's nose and pulled the band holding the blonde's hair in a ponytail off. He grinned, the steel cross that hung from it dangling from his fingers.

Krad blinked slowly as his ankle-length hair fell softly around him. Then he blinked again. And then he blinked one more time for good measure. "You may not be dead yet, Dark," Krad said slowly, "But that is liable to change very soon. I give you two seconds to begin running."

Dark eeped and took off. Krad honored his word by the thinnest of margins, leaping after the purple-haired boy who was laughing uproariously and dashing through the apartment a bare one second and fifty-nine milliseconds later. His hair flew out behind him, and he felt a hint of annoyance. It was always so heavy when it was down.

Neither of the boys knew their way around the apartment, so it was a short chase before Dark found himself cornered in a bedroom. He spun around to see Krad appear in the doorway, golden eyes glowing softly. He gulped. Despite the fact that Krad had begun stalking him like the many times before when the outcome really _would _have been death, Dark felt no real anxiety about Krad's reaction. He held up the cross in front of him as Krad began prowling toward him, a glint in his eye. "Evil begone!" He cried teasingly.

Krad growled and tackled him onto the bed. Dark began laughing uproariously again, scrambling for the door, but he never made it to the edge of the bed before it rolled and Krad grabbed him, tumbling him onto his back. Dark wheezed. "Mercy, mercy," he gasped. "Let me catch my breath!" He groaned and relaxed. "Now that you've caught me, what do you intend to do with me?"

Krad tapped a finger to his chin thoughtfully as he considered his options, his hair falling around them and forming a golden curtain that shut out the outside world. "Well, hurting you is out of the question. Hmm…" he absently dropped his hand back to the bed, and it brushed against Dark's bare ribs.

Dark gave a tiny gasp and tensed.

Krad arched an eyebrow. "Oh? And what is this?" He brushed his hand up the vulnerable boy's ribs, and Dark squeaked, writhing beneath him.

"No, Krad, please, don't…Auuggh!" Dark shrieked like a girl as Krad raised himself up on his knees and began attacking with both hands.

"Who ever knew that the famous Dark Mousy was so ticklish?" Krad mused, slowing down slightly. "Even with the number of times I've touched you over the past few days, I never knew this."

Dark managed to catch his breath slightly and grin up at his captor. "You…you make it sound so naughty!" He giggled. Then he shrieked again as Krad renewed the attack.

"If you have enough breath to insult me, then you're not being punished enough." Krad smiled down at the boy wriggling and laughing underneath him, and the smile broadened until he let out a delighted laugh.

Dark froze.

Krad stopped, a grin still dazzling his face. "What?"

Dark wriggled out from underneath him and knelt on the bed in front of him, reverently touching Krad's lips with his fingers. "You smiled…you laughed."

Krad felt the smile slip from his face. He turned a light shade of pink. Cursing mentally, he turned away and began to get off the bed.

"Aww, the smile went away," Dark said, following him and keeping him from regretting everything. "Bring it back! It made you look so handsome." The last part was mumbled, but Krad caught it anyway, and he stopped in surprise. "I shall make you smile again!" Dark decided, apparently unaware that Krad had heard his last comment. "Come on, smile for me?" He peered hopefully into Krad's face.

Krad scowled instead and turned away. "Come on, we need to get going if we're going to get the shards from the Museum of Culture and the Modern Art Museum by tonight."

Dark pouted and followed him. "I will make it come back, you know. It is now my purpose in life to make you laugh."

Unseen by his companion, Krad smiled a small smile.

—

—

—

The Museum of Culture was pathetically easy. Kosuke had suggested actually trying to avoid the creatures that were sure to be there, and had received two blank looks from the angels. But Dark, who had never avoided a challenge in his life, considered it and realized that it was actually a very smart move. They planned on making two thefts that day, one during the day and one that night, and it would be best for them to conserve their energy as much as possible.

Knowing his counterpart well and knowing that Krad would want to simply walk in and start throwing his magical power around, Dark decided not to tell him of the new plan. He would just lead them around the guardians instead.

And it was _pathetically _easy. There were only two guardians, and the female cat demon was too busy seducing the bounty hunter to use her nose. Dark was surprised at the human; he'd come to expect demons, but it made sense that the mysterious woman who was their opponent wouldn't want to expend the huge amounts of energy it took to summon and then control demons on the material plane.

Dark, ignoring Krad's hissed questions, led the way through the room, stealthily collecting the large shards from their hiding places. One was set in an opera mask shaped like a monkey king, one was hidden in the waves of a Chinese ocean landscape painting, and one was inside an Italian bronze vase. The painting caused the most trouble, because it was positioned very close to the amorous couple. Dark had to use a large part of his skill to get it without the demon girl noticing.

Fifteen minutes later they were sitting atop a roof next to the museum, basking in the sun and watching to see when and where the supposed guardians deserted the premises. Dark had successfully answered all of Krad's questions to the blonde's satisfaction and was now trying to fit together the pieces they had gathered, with little success.

Krad sighed as he watched him. "Give it up, Dark. Obviously none of those pieces fit together."

"Hush," Dark said absently, "And keep watching the museum. Can you feel the magic? Even though they're broken, these shards _radiate _power. I guess the shattering didn't really affect the power level; either that or it was exponentially more powerful when whole the first time. I wonder what happened to whoever broke it."

"Probably turned into an oozing pile of guts and body parts by the magical backlash, along with anybody in the vicinity," Krad said, bored. Then he sat up straight. "There they go."

Dark looked up. A flicker from one of the windows was the cat demon, while on the other side of the building the bounty hunter stole out of a side door. "Hey, at least they were smart enough to leave the building in different places. I'd hate to be them when they tell their boss that they let the shards go without a fight."

Krad smiled as he watched them go. "So would I." When they were out of sight he stood up and stretched. "So, back to the apartment, then?"

Dark felt his mouth fill with saliva as Krad's tight white shirt slid up, exposing his tight, strong stomach and defined abs. _Ack! No no no! Bad! That is bad! No attraction is allowed to Krad, ever! Not even a possibility. I do _not_ think that he was hurt badly in the past by the Hikaris, or that he could be a really sweet guy, or that his body makes me drool with lust…_

_Oh fuck._

"Dark?" Krad asked quizzically, and Dark yanked his eyes up to meet the gold ones looking down at him. "Are we going back to the apartment, or what?"

"Yeah," Dark said, and was mortified at how husky and desire-filled his voice sounded. Krad, thankfully, didn't notice. Dark had a feeling that Krad was basically oblivious to any and all sexual overtures toward his person. "Yeah, let's head back, but before we go off on our next job, I wanna take you somewhere."

Krad did a double take and looked at him warily. "Where?"

Dark grinned. "Nowhere you won't like, I promise." He rose to his feet and spread his wings. "Ready to go?"

His partner nodded, spreading his own wings. Dark suddenly fell into a flashback.

_And this is your lover? The other half of your art piece? He seems to be very loyal to you, considering the way he pushed you out of the way…_

That's what the first demon had said to him. Why had he assumed that they were lovers? Did they act like lovers? Was it because they were two halves of an art piece?

Dark shook his head and dropped off the edge of the building, his wings catching him and carrying him toward home. Krad, having caught the shake of the head, followed him with a slight frown on his face. Why had he done that? And where did he want to take him? Well, he'd only find out once they got home and dropped off the shards, and he added more power to his wingbeats, catching up with and flying alongside his dark-haired companion.

—

—

—

Krad looked around in astonishment as he sat down across from Dark. "A pizza parlor? You brought me to a _pizza parlor_?"

Dark grinned winningly at him. "Well, yeah. Satoshi seems like too much of a stick-in-the-mud to go out much, and I doubt you two were ever on very good terms, so I figured you'd like it. Besides, I'm hungry. And pizza parlors are a natural congregation point for teenagers our age—or at least, how old we're supposed to be, so we fit right in." He shrugged. "Besides, I doubt you had pizza with Satoshi very much." Then he grinned again. "It tastes so much better when you're the one in charge of your taste buds!"

Their waitress arrived, a pretty girl about their age or a few years older, and left them their menus. Krad caught the appreciative glance sent Dark's way and scowled. He didn't like that.

"So what do you want?" Dark asked, oblivious, opening his menu. Krad brought his attention back to the table.

"I don't know," he confessed, opening his own menu. "I've never been to a pizza parlor before."

"Really?! Well then, how about I order?" Dark smiled reassuringly at him. "I'll get something I think you'll like, I promise." Krad nodded his assent cautiously.

Their waitress came back a few minutes later, and Dark ordered a large half cheese, half pepperoni and sausage pizza, and sodas. Krad was fascinated, and intrigued by the smells permeating the air. They smelled very good.

"So you've never been to a pizza parlor before?" Dark asked, leaning on his elbows and looking at Krad earnestly. "Does Satoshi not like pizza or something?"

Krad shrugged. "I honestly don't know," he confessed, "I have no memory of him ever eating pizza in his life."

Dark gasped in shock. "Never eaten pizza! How awful! That poor boy! You know, for once I actually feel sorry for him. How strange. So this'll be your first time eating pizza too?" Krad nodded. "How marvelous!" Dark grinned. "You'll love it."

Their waitress brought them their drinks, and Krad scowled again as he caught the flirtatious smile that was sent Dark's way. Once he was gone he asked, "Does that happen to you all the time?"

"What? The looks? Yeah, all the time. Boys and girls." Dark propped his head up on his hand and stared at Krad. "I wonder why you don't get the same looks. I mean, we're identical. Sort of. Except for color. And temperament. And personality. But other than that we're exactly the same."

"Yes, exactly the same," Krad said dryly, "Except for the fact that you're a nationally renowned thief and have enough self confidence for three people, and I am only known to six people: you, Satoshi-sama, and the four Niwas. And I have no social skills whatsoever."

Dark waved his hand impatiently. "But that shouldn't matter! You're gorgeous. You should still get looks, if not offers, when you're out like this with me."

Krad raised an eyebrow. "I bet that every single person in this room thinks we're dating." He ignored the warm feeling he got when Dark called him gorgeous.

_I wouldn't mind that…_ Dark thought, before banishing the thought firmly. Those thoughts could only come out in private.

They talked the entire time they sat in the pizza parlor, not noticing when the waitress's looks turned to ones of amusement and slight exasperation. Krad inhaled sharply when Dark reached out to wipe off a bit of sauce from his face, brushing his thumb against Krad's bottom lip in the process. Dark had to control his breathing when Krad sucked on his straw, imagining where that mouth could be instead.

And it drove both of them mad.


	9. Dead?

**I'm so sorry this is so late! The new semester just started and I was crazy busy signing up for college classes and such, so, once again, GOMEN! And it's even shorter than usual… I am such a bad person. Sigh. Oh well. Enjoy! And don't forget to review!**

* * *

Two dark figures stood silently on a rooftop, lit faintly from below by the dim streetlights. Finally one spread huge black wings and lifted off, followed by his companion on wings of a paler color. If anyone had been watching them, they might have noticed the incredible awareness the two seemed to have for each other, guarding each other's backs and seamlessly flying around each other. Not a single movement was wasted, down to the least flick of a feather or shift in weight.

Dark spun his concealment magic around the two of them as Krad began working at the window. He had spent much of the afternoon and evening trying to cram as much information about stealing as possible into his partner's head, in the hopes that it would help them get done more quickly. They had four shards to steal tonight. Two were in the same room, one dedicated to the blossoming of Christianity, but the other two were in completely different wings of the museum.

"Got it!" Krad whispered, as the window swung open. He hopped inside, followed quickly by Dark, who closed the window behind him but didn't latch it — just in case.

The two angels looked around cautiously. Getting constantly attacked was doing wonders for their stealth and fighting abilities, which before had only gotten practice on each other…and they knew each other's tactics inside out and backwards by now, after so many years.

"Do you want to get the two in the same room together first?" Dark whispered, his breath stirring the wispy hairs next to Krad's ear and making him shudder and his pants tighten slightly. Horrified, Krad nodded and moved off quickly. That had been…unexpected. And entirely unwelcome. Simply because he had acknowledged that Dark was handsome and he was slightly attracted to him didn't mean that his body could react in ways like that without telling him first! And_never_ while they were working!

The museum was silent around them, a silence that unnerved the two thieves. They were wound too tightly, too ready to be attacked by every shadow, and Dark at least knew that it wasn't good.

Dark kept watch as Krad carefully extracted the blue-tinged shard from the angel statue's wing, but all seemed to be quiet. And _that_ made Dark more nervous than Krad's insistence on putting himself in harm's way. "Where are they?" He muttered. "We know they're here. That woman wouldn't just let us take these shards without a fight."

"Well, save your strength for the fight then, instead of worrying," Krad replied, tucking the shard into the bag Kosuke had given them and moving onward, looking for the crucifix that held the second shard. Extending his power with the most delicate of touches —Dark had done wonders for his control, and he no longer simply bulled forward and relied on his strength to see something through— he sifted through the various pulses of magic in the room, trying to ignore the bright sun pulsing behind him that was Dark, and located the distinctive shivery feel of the shard. Following it, he wove his way around the strategically placed pedestals and reached it.

He sighed in awe. While he had never been a believer in God or Christianity, this work of art inspired a sense of wonder in anyone. Ten feet tall, the cross stood on its large base, a masterpiece in gold and silver and blue. Krad unfurled his wings and slowly flapped upward, coming level with the crosspiece. A hand rested on his shoulder and another reached out towards the cross, stopping several inches from the surface.

"It's so strong…" Dark whispered in awe. "Do you _feel_ that? What an incredible piece of work."

The two of them hovered for a while, touching casually and basking in the good feelings the cross gave them. Finally Dark sighed and stretched out his hand to it again, and twitched his fingers. The place where the two bars joined shimmered slightly, and the shard appeared and floated toward him. The magic of the cross snapped shut behind it, and the angels could almost feel it humming in pleasure to finally have the piece that did not belong to it, that disrupted the flow of its existence, gone for good.

Dark removed his other hand from Krad's shoulder, leaving it feeling cold and bare, and placed the shard carefully in the bag on top of its brother. "Two down." He turned and drifted back to the floor like a huge black snowflake, landing just as softly. "Time to split up. You ready?"

Krad nodded as he too drifted to the ground, looking even more like a huge snowflake in his entirely white outfit. "This is what I don't understand," Dark continued, looking warily around as they headed for the exit. "There were two shards in this room. Why wasn't there anyone to guard it?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe she didn't know there were any in this room. That's the only thing I can think of."

"But that's ridiculous. How could she not know they were here?"

"Absolutely no idea. Which shard do you want to take?"

Dark sighed and looked around. They were at the juncture where they would have to part ways, and he wasn't looking forward to letting Krad go off on his own. He felt strangely protective of the sexually obtuse, somewhat endearing blonde, and did _not_ want him going into danger alone. "I'll take the ring, since it's farther away." He figured that he could speed there, grab the ring, and join Krad before anything bad could happen to him.

"Fine with me," Krad said. "So then I get the weird jar with the tortoises on it?"

Dark snorted, miffed. "It is not a weird jar. It is decorated with sapphires and made out of the finest gold in Japan."

"It's still weird. I mean, according to Daichii there's a fatass pearl set in the bottom of it. Who sets a pearl _inside_ a jar, where no one will ever see it?" Krad sniffed in disdain. "No Hikari would make something so hideously tacky."

"If you say so." Dark himself had known some pretty tacky works of art from the Hikari family, but the public, as always, had loved them. And of course, he had stolen them, as per his duty. "Well, let's get going so we can get this over with." He started down his own corridor, and heard Krad's footsteps do the same, fading with every second as they moved farther away.

Krad walked along slowly as he thought about Dark. It was true the thief was annoying, overbearing, and immature at times, but on this journey he had seen a much more serious and down-to-earth version of the 'enemy' he had thought he'd known. And he had to wonder if his flighty, perverted attitude was simply there because it pleased him to confuse people.

_Knowing Dark, there's simply no other possibility. More mature he may be, but he still enjoys annoying the piss out of anyone and everyone._

Krad smiled slightly at the thought of his counterpart, and reached another juncture in the hallway. Turning right, he caught the barest flash of movement before crippling pain exploded across his chest and ripped down to his belly. Utter blackness took his mind as he crumpled to the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

—

—

—

Dark frowned and landed quietly on the floor. He had been bounding through the halls, using his wings to propel him powerfully across the floor, but now he stopped and approached a corner warily. He had heard something, or thought he heard something, and years of running from policemen had taught him to always be careful of things you thought you heard.

Someone was breathing heavily just around the corner. Shaking his head at the poorly planned trap, Dark backed up and then took a running leap over the man, again using his wings to propel him far down the hall. Normally he would stop and fight the man now following him with a shout, but he just needed to get this shard and get back to Krad. He didn't care about this man, not even enough to spare an energy ball and knock him out just to get him out of the way. He couldn't possibly keep up when Dark was cheating and using his wings, so it didn't matter anyway because he was soon out of sight behind him.

Dark threw open the door to the desired room and dashed inside. This room had no other exits, so he had to get the ring and get out before the man cornered him inside. Finesse was for people with more time; he simply smashed the glass case and grabbed the ring, turning and bounding for the door again and flattening the man who appeared in the doorway right as he was passing through it.

Dark assessed the ring as he ran. The only magic he sensed was the magic of the shard set into the setting, so he slipped it onto his middle finger, where it settled perfectly. _And now to get back to Krad…_ Dark turned a sharp corner and sprinted down the next hallway. A throwing star whizzed past his head, so close that he could hear the whistling sound its passage through the air made, and with a curse he realized he'd been slowing down as he thought. Speeding up but not daring to use his wings in the narrower hall in case they damaged the paintings hanging on either side, Dark settled for his nearly-inhuman speed to outrun his pursuer.

He skidded slightly and rolled a split second before a katana cut the air right where his belly would be. Bouncing back up, he turned and analyzed the situation.

Two men advanced on him, one dressed as an ancient samurai and looking…well…dead. That was the one that had popped up around a corner and nearly cut him in half with a katana. Had their opponent raised someone from the dead? That took almost more energy than was possible! Where was she getting all of her power?

The other man, the one who had been chasing him, was dressed in a style unfamiliar to Dark. He also seemed to be the less dangerous of the two, but both knew how to use their two-to-one advantage to its full potential and kept far enough away from each other to make it difficult for Dark to fight both, and close enough to still effectively cover each other.

"Give up," the alive man suggested, taking another step forward. "You can't win. Not against both of us."

Dark laughed. "Shows how much you know. You never heard what happened to the people who tried to stop us before? My partner will be at your back any moment now, and you two will never know what your cause of death was."

The dead-looking samurai laughed. It was a horrible sound. "Your partner? You mean the blond? He's already dead, and bleeding out in the hallway down there."


	10. Dark Goes Berserk

Dark felt a faint ringing in his ears. Everything seemed to fade out, and his vision failed, and he fell into a swirling void that pulled him down. He heard the dead samurai's voice again.

"_Your partner? You mean the blond? He's already dead, and bleeding out in the hallway down there."_

Krad.

Krad dead.

Krad's beautiful eyes, smiling in delight at him only a few hours ago. Floating in front of him, they changed to the blank unseeing shells they would be now.

Krad, who was so cutely innocent about the most simple of things, like pizza. Like attraction. Like his own beauty.

When Dark came back to himself he was alone in the hallway, getting rained on by the sprinklers and deafened by the alarm. Judging by the smoldering ruins of the area directly in front of him he assumed he'd blasted the two men into tiny flecks of carbon, but he couldn't bring himself to even spare them more than what time it took to make sure they were out of his way.

He spread his wings and sped down the hallway the samurai had indicated, bounding even faster than before in his hurry to get to his partner. He was going so fast, in fact, that he almost missed Krad's body lying crumpled on the ground.

"Oh no," Dark muttered, kneeling next to the still form and unmindful of the blood that pooled around his legs. "Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no…" He reached out shaking hands and tried to stop the flow of blood from the hideous gash that split open his love's body from his collarbone almost to his groin, but it was useless.

But the blood was still flowing.

That meant he was still alive. Dead bodies didn't bleed.

_He'll never survive,_ Dark realized, _never survive the trip back to the Niwas. If I can't save him here, he'll die._

What could he do? He didn't know the first thing about healing someone, much less a wound this bad.

_I can use my power. My power would heal this. I think._

It was Krad's only chance. Dark placed his hands directly over the cut, took a deep breath, closed his eyes tight, and swamped his love with his power. _Fix him,_ he begged. _Fix him so that he will live and be strong again._

Dark felt …something… happen, and then his energy was sucked so thoroughly and so completely from his body that he was rendered unconscious. His body settled gently over Krad's, and the two of them lay there, the sprinklers drumming softly on their forms.

—

—

—

Dark wrinkled his forehead. He was freezing cold and wet, and lying on something both warm and soft and hard and cold. Where the fuck was he? And more importantly, where was Krad?

His purple eyes opened slowly, and he winced at the bright light that stabbed them and made his headache worse. He tried raising his head next, and found that with a fair amount of complaining from his absolutely miserable skull, he could do it. That was good. Dark discovered that the soft and warm thing he had been lying on was, in fact, Krad. He was still sleeping and looked absolutely fine, overlooking the blood-drenched white clothes.

_Thank god…If there is a God…Do artworks have to worry about going to heaven or hell? Do we even die?_

Now Dark knew he was really out of it. He only started wondering about random shit like theology when he was so far past where his limits were supposed to have ended that they weren't even in the same zip code anymore.

So. One question (the most important one) answered, the other one still up in the air. Dark looked around and it took a moment for his bleary and exhausted eyes to register what he was seeing.

_Bloody hell._

They were in jail.

"Oh fuck." He groaned, because he wasn't going to be able to do anything about their situation until he had recovered, and that could take a while. Dark was usually conservative about his use of power, so the complete draining he had given his system left his energy centers feeling raw and inflamed.

_Okay, what to do, what to do, what to do. The police obviously pulled us out of the museum, sooo… do we have any of the shards still?_ He checked his hand; the ring, incredibly, was still there. _Wow. Wonder how they managed to miss that. Or if they left it on purpose… but why would they leave it on purpose? That makes no sense, it was museum property. Oh well. What about the two shards Krad had?_ Dark tried to lift his arm to check his still partner, but was only capable of making the appendage twitch. _Damn._ As much as it hurt him, he extended his senses just far enough to sense the pulsing of the shards somewhere under him and Krad. _Wonder why they left them with us? And I wonder why we're in the same room? I've undoubtedly been recognized as the phantom thief Dark, so wouldn't they have wanted to separate us? Doesn't matter, focus, focus. Should remain unconscious, I think, they can't question us if we're unconscious and that'll give me enough time to get enough energy back to get us out of here._

Dark let his head relax onto Krad's chest again, and delighted in the strong steady heartbeat he heard there. _Now that I've got a plan, I can sleep…_

—

—

—

"Why aren't they awake yet? It's been nearly twelve hours."

"They're not human, sir, we don't know what they are but they're not human. Whenever we try to run their DNA through the system, whenever we try to wake them up, no matter what we use, our machinery always goes haywire. The X-rays we took showed nothing. Nothing! They didn't even register on the screen! Sir, we have no way of knowing when or how they will wake up. Judging by the blood all over the blond he was critically hurt, but he shows no sign of it now. That simply cements the fact that we _have_ no facts about them. Sorry sir, but that's all the help we can be."

"Well, what about separating them? Have you figured out a way to get them separated yet? Dark should be in an isolated room by himself."

Now the other voice, besides the slight nervousness and fear, held exasperation as well. "Sir, we've told you, there's absolutely no way of separating them without cutting Dark's hands off. And you've already refused to order that."

There was vague muttering, and then the door shut. Dark smirked slightly but didn't open his eyes. So, not human, eh? Didn't register on their machines, they went haywire. Most interesting. He sighed and snuggled deeper into Krad, who still hadn't woken. A few more hours and his energy levels would be up to breaking them out.

—

—

—

Satoshi paced a circle around Daisuke over and over and over again. The redhead barely even stirred anymore, and Satoshi only knew that he was awake from the half-lidded eyes that followed him. What was that woman doing? She'd nearly killed Daisuke, and now Satoshi was having to fight off his own collapse as well.

_Krad, Krad, where are you? We need you so badly…_ Satoshi knelt down next to Daisuke, wrapping the smaller boy in his arms. Daisuke sighed and snuggled closer, and his hands clutched tightly at Satoshi's shirt.

"I feel better," a small whisper came, and Satoshi started, wild hope bubbling in his chest. Daisuke had been too weak to talk before. "It's not such a constant draw anymore. Maybe she's drawn as much as she needs."

Overwhelmed with relief, Satoshi pressed a kiss to the top of Daisuke's head. "Thank God, thank God you're okay."

"Satoshi?"

The blue-haired boy sighed. "I couldn't have born it if you had died, Daisuke-kun. It would have torn me apart. I wouldn't have wanted to survive." His voice dropped even lower. "Aishiteru, Daisuke."

The body below him went still. Satoshi wondered if he had even heard the words that had been whispered into his hair. Then, disturbingly, he began to shudder.

"Daisuke-kun? Daisuke-kun!" Satoshi gripped his shoulders and shoved him back so he could see his face. "Daijobu ka?"

Daisuke was crying silent tears. Satoshi wrapped his arms back around his only friend, heart ripping into pieces. "Gomenasai, Daisuke-kun, I won't mention it again, I promise I won't, I understand if you don't want to talk to me ever…"

Daisuke's arms convulsed tightly around Satoshi's waist, and he raised his angry, tear-stained face. "Don't you _ever_ say that again!" he hissed.

Satoshi swallowed painfully, trying to pull his cold mask out and keep it on his face. "I understand." He pulled away.

Daisuke wouldn't let go. "Niwa-kun?" Satoshi asked, heart bleeding a little bit more at the realization that he wouldn't be allowed to call his love by his first name anymore.

Daisuke surged upward and tackled him to the ground, arms circling his neck and his wet face pressing against Satoshi's. Still too weak to do anything else, he lay there on top of his friend. "I love you Satoshi, I love you too, don't you ever say you won't mention it again, 'cause if you didn't I'd have to kill you."

Satoshi stared in shock at the still crying boy on top of him. "You…you what?"

Daisuke managed as much of a glare as he could with a tear-streaked face. "I love you too, you big dork. Do you need me to say it again?"

"If…if you wanted to, I wouldn't stop you," Satoshi managed, sliding his hands up and around Daisuke's back.

Daisuke grinned brightly. "Aishiteru, Sato-kun."

Satoshi gently wiped away the tears. "Aishiteru, Dai-chan." He pressed a soft kiss against the lips hovering so temptingly above his, then sat up, automatically tightening his arms around Daisuke as he slid down into his lap. "Now you need to sleep. You can't wear yourself out."

Daisuke, about to argue the point, yawned instead. "Only if you sleep with me."

The ex-tamer smiled. "Of course. I'd be glad to."

—

—

—

At exactly the same time Dark was carefully finishing carving out a large section of the roof of his prison cell with his power. Calling Wiz in a soft voice, he smiled as the white rabbit, now fully healed, transformed and attached himself to his shoulders. He picked up Krad gently and took off, ignoring his still-screaming body and similarly ignoring the shouts as policemen and other authorities noticed him. In minutes, despite the many shots taken at him, he disappeared into the dark night sky.

"Wiz, take us home," he ordered, and fought to keep a grip on Krad. "As quickly as possible, please."

In minutes the two of them were dropped softly on the floor of the living room and surrounded by two worried, panicky Niwa men. "We're fine," Dark said, hoping his voice wasn't really as slurry as it sounded. "Just need rest…No!" He clutched Krad tighter as Kosuke tried to take him away. "Together."

Kosuke nodded. "All right." He helped Dark to the bedroom and stripped him of his severely beaten clothes. Dark set to work on Krad's bloodstained ones, and sighed with relief when he stripped away the white shirt to reveal a pale chest marred only by a silver scar. The power he had given Krad had apparently healed the wound so thoroughly that the scar had faded in a matter of hours rather than months.

"Oh good, he really is okay. Why hasn't he woken up?"

"How much blood did he lose?"

"A lot."

"Then it's completely up in the air whether he'll wake up at all."

"What!?"

"If he's lost too much blood his body won't be able to make up the extra fast enough, and his cells may start dying from lack of oxygen."

Dark's face drained of color, and he knelt next to the bed. "He'll wake up. We heal faster than anyone."

Kosuke, seeing the open despair in Dark's face, only nodded and left.

"Krad, you idiot," Dark whispered, "Wake up. Don't leave me here alone. Don't you _dare_ die before I've told you I love you. Goddamnit, Krad, _wake up,_ please." He sniffed and wiped a hand over his eyes. "Satoshi will kill you if you die before you save him. Fuck, _I'll_ kill you if you bail on me, so don't you dare."

He reached out and grabbed Krad's still hand, resting his head on his blanket-covered chest. Krad's pulse beat erratically and quickly underneath his ear. Without meaning to, Dark fell asleep holding Krad's hand, half-lying on top of him.


	11. Unable To Say It

**I am so, so, so sorry this is so late!! I have been insanely stressed for the last month or so, so I didn't have time to finish it! But here it is, and although it's short, I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Krad's eyebrows drew together faintly. His hand closed slightly around another hand. Slowly his eyelids fluttered open, and he glanced downward.

Dark's purple head rested on his chest, face turned toward him and relaxed in sleep. Krad's hand was gripped by his partner's, and Dark's grip hadn't slackened even in sleep. Dried tear tracks glittered around his eyes.

"Dark," he whispered, and Dark's eyes flew open.

"Krad!" he shot up straight. "Are you okay? How do you feel?"

"Not too bad, considering that the last thing I remember is getting stabbed by some unknown person," whispered Krad. "How'd you find me?"

"The guy who stabbed you told me what he did. I found you. I healed you too, but the police found us and took us to jail. Last night I got us out, and Kosuke said that you'd lost so much blood that it was up in the air whether or not you'd come through." Dark smiled, still holding Krad's hand. "I'm so glad you did."

"Me too," Krad muttered, closing his eyes again. "Dark…When I was asleep… Did you talk to me?"

"Um, yes, why?" Dark asked, slightly nervously.

"'Cause… I thought I heard you say you loved me…"

Dark flinched. The movement transferred to Krad's hand. Krad smiled bitterly. "Stupid, I know. You wouldn't say that. Especially not to me." He sighed and turned his head to the side, ready to go back to sleep. "I won't mention it again…"

"Krad." Dark leaned forward, gripping his hand tightly. "I love you."

Krad's eyes flew open.

"What?"

"I love you," Dark repeated. "I did say that when you were sleeping. And I meant it."

Krad blinked. And stared. "You love me?"

Dark blushed. "Yes."

Krad reached out his other hand and brushed it across Dark's cheek. "You're blushing," he stated wonderingly.

It only made Dark blush a bit more. "Krad?"

"Yes?"

"Can I kiss you?"

Krad blinked again. Then he murmured, "I think the correct way to say that would be 'may I kiss you.' But yes. You can."

Dark smiled and leaned forward, kissing his counterpart without hesitation. Now that he finally had permission to kiss those wonderfully shaped lips, he wasn't going to risk Krad taking that privilege away.

The soft lips parted hesitantly below him and Dark grinned inwardly, exploring the warm slick orifice presented to him. Krad was remarkably passive, letting Dark do what he wanted, and Dark had the feeling that once Krad was feeling better and knew what he was doing, things would not nearly be so calm.

Air, of course, is a commodity essential to sustaining life, and Dark finally broke the kiss and sighed. Krad echoed the sigh, breathing heavily. "Wow."

Dark chuckled. "You must admit I am an extremely good kisser."

"Wouldn't know. I've never kissed anyone before in my life."

Dark, startled, jerked upward, staring down at his partner. "You mean…that was your first kiss?"

"Is that a problem?"

"No, it's just…wow. I was someone's first kiss."

Krad chuckled. "You are a cocky, arrogant bastard. No wonder we work together so well."

"What, 'cause we're two sides of the same coin?"

Krad smiled and caressed Dark's cheek. "Exactly. Dark, I…" his throat worked, but no sound came out. He choked on the second word.

"It's okay," Dark said quickly, holding Krad's hand between both of his own. "You don't need to say anything in return." He gave him a quick kiss, which melted into a longer one and ended up with both angels out of breath again. "God, if you weren't recovering, what I would do to you…" Dark murmured.

"Do it anyway. I won't break."

"No." Dark pulled away with a sigh and stood up. "You need to rest and get better. Maybe after we get all the shards."

Krad glared. "I'll be holding you to that promise."

"It wasn't a promise, but feel free to hold me to it." Dark winked and headed for the door. "I'll be right back."

He trotted down the hallway, almost deliriously happy and ignoring his arousal. At least he wasn't wearing leather. _That _would be painful. He briefly informed Kosuke that Krad had woken up and that neither of them wanted to be disturbed until the next day, and then hurried back to his impatient angel.

He paused in the doorway, unable to believe what he was seeing. Krad lay on his back, ivory skin completely bared, one hand curled lazily around his erect cock and stroking it smoothly up and down. As Dark watched he pulled back the skin at the head and caressed it, moaning.

Dark moaned in return and pounced.

"You started without me," he breathed into a delicate ear, straddling Krad's waist and pinning his arms out to either side. "Naughty."

Krad glared. "Well, then, help me out a little."

"With pleasure." Dark ground his hips down, his equally hard cock meeting Krad's and causing dual groans of pleasure. Then Dark slid off. Krad yelped.

"Where—" He stopped talking and stared as Dark pulled off his shirt without ceremony and tossed it aside, his hands going to his pants. He'd lost a lot of weight recently —they both had— and so a belt helped hold them up. Dark slid it out of its loop, unbuckled it, and had the button and his fly open in a moment. Letting them fall to the floor, he launched himself back onto the bed on top of Krad.

"Did you have a question?" He asked, holding in a moan as bare skin slid across bare skin. Krad wasn't as successful.

"Was just wondering where you were going," he gasped, and groaned again as Dark walked his fingers across his chest to trace delicately around an erect nipple.

"Ah. Well, I'm back now." Dark replaced his fingers with his mouth and ran his hands down Krad's chest. Krad gasped and his hips bucked as Dark sucked fiercely on his nipple. Then he drew back and groaned, hands moving restlessly across Krad anywhere he could touch, as though he couldn't keep himself from the contact. "God, I shouldn't. You need to rest…"

"I do _not._ It feels like all I've been doing for the last few days is resting! I will _not _break like a piece of glass!"

Dark laughed breathlessly. "I still shouldn't…but because you're so sure…" he dove down and recaptured Krad's lips, hands exploring his body with new zeal. Feeling better by the second, Krad gasped and writhed under the assault, unable to reciprocate in any way but unable to even comprehend that fact. Besides, Dark didn't seem to be complaining.

Dark swallowed the blonde's cry as he closed a hand around his erection. It was already weeping precum from the tip, the creamy drops slowly sliding down the shaft to disappear into blond pubic hair. Dark watched in fascination. Then he removed his hand and bent down. Krad watched in consternation as he came closer and closer to his erection. "What are you…" he gasped.

Dark had swallowed his erection whole.

_I didn't know you could do that,_ Krad thought hazily as his hands buried themselves in Dark's hair and his hips bucked. He vaguely heard himself shout, but all of his attention was on the blazing wet heat surrounding his prick.

Dark withdrew and licked his lips. "Delicious," he murmured, and raised his eyes to meet Krad's confused ones. He grinned. "Don't worry, koi, it just gets better."

Krad was just about to ask how it could get better than that when Dark lowered his head again and spread his legs wider. Fighting a flash of fear at the vulnerable position, Krad tried to close his legs, but Dark kept them open with little effort. He felt the thief's hot breath hit his sacs and then travel lower, and his discomfort increased. Then a hot tongue circled his asshole.

Krad's brain short-circuited.

Dark grinned at the gasps and whines emitting from his sexy partner, and plunged his tongue into the furled hole. Krad screamed. Then he sobbed in regret as Dark removed his tongue. "Naughty," he admonished. "You have to be quiet or you'll bring Kosuke and Daichii."

Krad nodded, twisting his head on the pillow. "I'll be quiet, I promise, just please…please…"

Dark obliged, and Krad sank his teeth into his hand to stop himself from screaming again. The kaito was eating out his ass leisurely, plunging his tongue in as far as it could go in an imitation of what he really wanted, and occasionally twisting it inside.

"Dark…please…_please,_" Krad begged, and Dark withdrew.

"Please what, beautiful?" He asked, resting his head on Krad's thigh and tracing circles on it with his tongue.

"Please…fuck me." Krad flushed a beautiful shade of red even darker than the simple flush of exertion from before at his shameful declaration.

Dark raised his head, hand now stroking the inside of Krad's thigh. "Are you sure?" He asked worriedly. "We don't have to. I can just as easily suck you off, or…" he grinned wickedly. "I could eat you out until you come without me ever touching your cock."

Krad groaned and shook his head. "No, as lovely as that sounds, I want you to fuck me."

Dark stood up. "All right."

* * *

**Bwahaha!! I am evil... but the next chapter will be coming much sooner than this one, so don't get too mad at me! And yes, this little scene between them will be finished then. I just wanted to get this out for y'all. Maybe I'll even finish the next chapter later today! But don't count on it.**

**  
****Lara**


	12. The Last

**Hello all my little chickadees, I am back!! As promised, with the end of that little scene I left you hanging on. And MORE!! So, I'm only planning three more chapters after this one, so be prepared for the end. It'll be a happy one!! **

* * *

Krad groaned. "You're leaving again."

Dark grinned. "I am not. Unless you want me to use spit as a lubricant…" he trailed off.

Krad's eyes widened. Even though he'd never had sex, he knew the mechanics of it well enough. "No, that's okay."

"Good." Dark crawled back onto the bed with a jar of oil in his hand.

"Where did you get that?"

The dark-haired man simply shot him an amused look. "A thief never betrays his secrets." Dipping his fingers into the slick substance, he paid no attention to the drips onto the sheets and moved them to Krad's sack, cupping and rolling it in his hand and coating it in oil. Then, carefully, he moved his fingers back toward the tightly-furled hole that was anxiously winking in anticipation. Dark circled it cautiously first, making sure Krad was okay with this, and then dipped a finger inside and simply let it rest there.

Krad clenched and unclenched around the finger. It didn't feel all that painful, just a little weird. Satoshi had regularly fingered himself as he masturbated, and Krad supposed that his muscles still remembered the intrusion and the pleasure it caused. "Go ahead, I won't break," he reassured Dark again, and to prove his point he relaxed around the finger, pulling it deeper into his hot depths.

Dark groaned in agreement and pulled his finger out, then pushed it back in with a fellow. Krad gasped, but when the fingers faltered he reached down, grabbed Dark's wrist, and shoved them in all the way to the base. "Just stretch me already," he growled, golden eyes clashing with purple.

Dark nodded in acquiescence. "You're rather looser than most virgins. Been practicing?" He twisted his fingers, and Krad's head fell back.

"Sa…Satoshi…fingers himself…when he masturbates," he panted.

Dark chuckled. "What a dirty little commander. Thinking of having Daisuke take him?"

Krad shrugged. "Honestly, when you have two fingers up my ass and…" he paused for a second to suck in a breath, "are twisting them in an absolutely cruel way, I could care less about what Satoshi thinks about when he jacks off."

"True," Dark laughed as he added a third finger and stretched Krad further. A few more pumps and he removed them completely, dipping them back into the oil and covering his erection. "You ready?"

Krad nodded, his golden hair spread out below him and still streaked with blood from his wound. He looked like a fallen angel, descending into sin and yet still looking pure. Dark slammed in quickly, knowing it would be better to get it over with fast. Both of them gasped, Dark from the incredible heat and tightness, and Krad from the unwelcome pain and intrusion.

"Give me a minute," he gasped, and Dark nodded, not raising his head from where it rested on Krad's shoulder. He tried to control his own breathing and keep from coming as soon as he moved. Goddamn, Krad was tight. Either Dark hadn't had sex in far too long or he liked virgins a little more than he had thought. Or, you know, it might just be the fact that it was Krad beneath him, and not somebody else.

Krad clenched and unclenched around him, drawing a long groan from Dark. "What are you waiting for? Fuck me."

"No." Dark raised his head and met Krad's gaze.

"No?" Krad's eyes widened.

Dark smirked and moved forward, burying himself even further inside the angel's body. "I'm going to love you," he whispered into Krad's ear.

Krad rolled his eyes slightly, not acknowledging how shivery and warm that made him feel inside. "How clichéd."

Dark pulled out and thrust back in again, and Krad gasped, all thoughts forgotten in the wash of sensation. The pace quickly sped up, Krad snapping his hips down to meet Dark's thrusts up. Sweat beaded their bodies as they moved in tandem.

Dark reached down and took Krad's neglected prick in one hand, pumping it roughly. Krad arched his back and shouted, and Dark grinned ferally and said, "That's it, scream for me as you come."

That was it for Krad. Overwhelmed by the triple sensations of being penetrated and jerked off and talked to in Dark's incredibly hot sex voice, he came explosively all over Dark's hand and his own stomach, crying, "DARK!"

With a shudder, Dark emptied himself into Krad's body as the muscles tightened around him. Setting his teeth into Krad's shoulder, he moaned, "Krad…" as he thrust a few last times, making sure that all of his semen was emptied from his cock.

They lay there, panting, for a few moments. Then Dark raised himself off of Krad and made to pull out of his body. Krad tightened his arms around his hips and kept him still. "Don't leave."

"But I'm crushing you."

Krad snorted. "You're not that heavy. Besides…" he sighed and clenched his ass around Dark's soft dick. "I like having you inside me."

"Keep doing that and I'll be ready for round two soon," Dark said warningly, smiling and reaching a hand up to trace Krad's face. "God, you're loud. I never expected you to be loud. Kosuke and Daiki are probably blushing like mad, wherever they are."

Krad hummed contentedly, too spent and happy to worry about that. "Who cares?" he sighed and wrapped himself around Dark, burrowing his face into the slowly cooling chest. "Now sleep. 'M tired."

A soft smile graced Dark's face, and he stroked Krad's hair gently as the two of them fell asleep tangled together.

—

—

—

The next morning the post-coital bliss had worn off. Krad was blushing like mad, but Dark acted no differently than normal when they emerged from their room. Perhaps he was a tad more smug than usual.

"So, where are we off to next?" He asked the two older men, swinging his feet from the counter as he drank from a bottle of ramune. Krad found himself staring as Dark's slender throat worked, swallowing the liquid. That throat could swallow his cum the same way…he snapped out of it, cheeks faintly tinged pink again.

"Well, there's still one shard left in the museum, because Krad was attacked before he could get it," Daiki said. "So we need to get that one first."

Krad ducked his head again, shame coloring his cheeks this time. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.

"Nothing to be sorry about. Accidents happen to everybody, right Dark?" Kosuke raised an eyebrow at him.

Dark nodded. "Although Risa isn't exactly an accident. She's sort of a category all on her own."

Krad suppressed a surge of hot jealousy and an urge to go out and make that girl scream and bleed for ever trying to touch his Dark. Then he mentally shook himself. Possessive, after one night? True, Dark had said he loved him, and the sex had meant something (at least, Krad thought it did)…

He tuned back in as Dark was describing, with periodic shudders of disgust, one of the times when Risa had stalked him. Krad smiled. _She_ was no competition. Dark clearly loathed her.

—

—

—

This time they went in together, and never left each other's sight. Dark was particularly insistent on that, and Krad had to stuff down a warm feeling inside of him. God! He was turning into a girl!

The last shard was collected with ease, and the two angels returned to the apartment quickly.

"So," Dark said, breathing hard after a ten minute game of sky tag with Krad, "Where do we go next?"

Kosuke scratched his head. "We're not sure. We can't find mention of the last two shards anywhere. We're going to have to return to the house for us to get a better sense of where they could be."

"We have to hurry," Krad interjected. "Satoshi and Daisuke will die soon if we can't get them out. They are in an art piece, remember. They can't survive long."

"Well then…" Dark spread his wings, ready to leave. "You want us to go ahead?"

Kosuke nodded. "Sure, why not? On the way, keep an eye out for their auras, just in case."

Dark saluted. "Will do." The two angels dropped out of a window and were gone.

* * *

**Yeah...so, um, I had something I wanted to say but then I forgot...maybe if I stare at my blank computer screen I'll remember...OH YEAH!! Well, this isn't what I was going to say, but I'm going to say it anyway. ISN'T KRAD CUTE?! Muah! I just want to hug him to death!  
**


	13. Fire Flies

**(Prostrates herself on the ground****) GOMENASAAAIIIII!! I lost my vision for this story for a while, and just regained it! It also didn't help that I had finals and performances and trips to Ashland, Oregon to see the Shakespeare Festival, and a whole bunch of other stuff! But here is this pitifully short chapter, and the last two will be up very soon, I promise! If they're not, you all have permission to hunt me down and beat me to death with Dark and Krad plushies!**

**Encouraging, no?**

—

—

—

"So," Krad stated conversationally as they flew. "What are we, now?"

"Hmm?" Dark asked distractedly, scanning the ground for any sign of the missing shards or the pendant.

Krad rolled his eyes. "What are you and I? Boyfriends? Lovers? Fuck buddies?"

"God, I hope not," Dark replied, dragging his eyes away from the ground. "We're boyfriends. I mean, unless you don't want to be."

"No, that's fine with me." _And that was what I'd hoped you'd say._

Dark smiled and sped up, swooping for the dim lights in the distance that signaled Azumano. It would take Daiki and Kosuke three hours to drive back to the town, but Dark and Krad, flying as high and fast as they were, would make it in about an hour. Both of them hoped that they were high enough that no one looking up would be able to see them in the bright blue sky.

Their trip was silent after that, breath being too hard to come by in the thin air for them to bother. When Dark began a slow descent, Krad followed and spun a concealment. It met and then meshed with Dark's own, and Krad smirked. They were so similar sometimes.

They landed in front of the Niwa house, and Dark smiled at Krad, folding his wings tightly against his back. Secure in the knowledge that their concealment was hiding them from any stray eyes, Krad moved forward and stole a kiss, drawing Dark against his body. Dark sighed into the blond angel's mouth, pulling his tongue into his own mouth and sucking on it. Krad growled and yanked the thief tighter against his body.

Then a bolt of fire struck the ground inches from Dark's foot. Dark cried out and jumped away, looking around wildly. Krad spun his concealment tighter as he too looked around, moving silently away from the smoking spot on the sidewalk. The fact that the firebolt had been aimed directly at them implied that their attacker could see through the shield, but there was always the chance that they had simply guessed, and besides, neither Krad nor Dark could afford to be seen by humans.

"Do you see them?" Dark asked quietly, breath barely stirring the hairs by Krad's ear. Krad shook his head, golden eyes darting around, looking for any sign of movement.

One of the trees around the back of the Niwa house rustled. Krad's eyes shot to it, and a quick glance ascertained that there was no wind. "There. The tall maple, see?"

Dark nodded and darted forward silently, Krad hot on his heels. No more firebolts came after them; either their attacker couldn't afford to waste the energy or they didn't want attention drawn to them either.

Krad rounded the tree and was met by a descending sword. Reacting instinctively, he raised his hand and grabbed it, gathering power in the palm of his hand. The attacker gaped at him.

"How…?"

Krad looked up. He was holding the blade of the sword above his head, his hand glowing white and perfectly whole. He returned his eyes to his opponent and grinned fiercely. "Just goes to show what improvisation can do, right?" his left hand shot forward and punched the man in the face, knocking him away. "So, you're another of that crazy woman's lackeys, huh? I wish she'd stop this. It's getting kind of annoying."

"But," Dark interjected from the man's other side, "If he's here then that means there's at least one shard around." Dark pressed his hands together, then threw them wide. White arcs of power shot from each hand to circle the man, trapping him. "Now then. Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

The man looked around warily. "Can you make that concealment prevent anyone from seeing or hearing us?"

With a thought the two angels joined their shields and spun them stronger. The world outside suddenly went silent. The man sighed in relief and lowered his sword. "My name is Kizak. I am a construct, created from the life force of one of the boys my mistress has trapped in the pendant."

"Dai!?" Dark interjected. "If he's hurt, I swear I will hunt down and kill every single creature this woman—"

"No, he's fine!" Kizak reassured him. "Or at least, he's not hurt. But he is dying. Listen. She put too much of him into me, I have my own mind, conscience, and everything. The bird artwork inside the house has one of the last shards, and the other one is in the basement, on the Yoshi no Minori. Get them, fit the mirror together, and ask the bird to take you to them. Get them out! If there is no one in the pendant, my mistress will be drawn back inside and the power involved will destroy the pendant." He paused here and trembled violently. "She is trying to find out what I am doing. She suspects. You heard what I said? It will destroy her. Do it _now_!" with a cry of agony, he fell to the ground and burst into flame.

Dark and Krad watched in horrified fascination. "She had a destruction on him?" whispered Dark, disgusted. "I hate this woman more and more. C'mon, let's go, she'll be sending backup soon." The two angels dashed inside the house. "Emiko-san!" Dark called. "_Emiko-san_!"

"Dark?" Emiko appeared in the kitchen doorway. "What's the matter? Why are you two back?"

"Niwa, where's the bird?" Krad asked.

"Towa, where's Towa, Emiko-san?" Dark said as Emiko began to bristle at Krad's words. "We need her!"

"Right here, Dark-san, what's wrong?" Towa chirped from behind them. They turned; there she was, holding a basket of laundry and looking at them curiously.

Their attention focused on her chest. There, directly in between her breasts, pulsed the familiar aura of a shard. "Of course," Dark breathed. "I can't believe we never noticed! Towa-chan, I need your necklace!"

Towa set down her basket and drew her necklace over her head, tossing it to him. "Here. Why do you need it?"

"For the shard," Dark mumbled, drawing it out and clenching it in his hand. "Towa-chan, thank you. We're going to need your help. You know the Yoshi no Minori?"

"Yes, it's down in the basement," Towa gestured downwards, her brow furrowing, "Why?"

"It contains the last shard. Niwa," Krad turned to Emiko, "There may be creatures attacking the house soon. Set up your traps and try to stall them as long as possible. Towa no Shirube," Towa's eyes widened as he turned to her, "Once we get the last shard and put the mirror together, you will take us through it into the pendant and help us get Satoshi and Daisuke back."

"Of course!" she chirped. "Let's go!" she dashed for the basement.

Dark paused. "Emiko-san, please do as Krad directed. We need all the time you can give us." He winked. "We'll pay for the damages." Krad rolled his eyes, knowing very well that they would simply repair everything with magic, and pushed Dark down the hallway after Towa.


	14. Invade and Conquer!

"I suppose this kills any chance of keeping these artifacts secret," Dark remarked as the three of them paused outside of the door into the room where his collection lay hidden. "Oh, well." He shrugged and with a flick of his wrist, opened the door and stepped inside.

Krad's eyes widened. Hundreds of Hikari artworks lined the walls and covered the floor. Each one of them was sealed, and the magic humming through the room made his head buzz. It was impossible to pick out one particular magical signature.

"Towa-chan," Dark said, "Can you please lead us to the Yoshi no Minori?"

"Of course, Dark-san!" Towa chirped, and bounced through the aisles, stopping at…

…A necklace. More of a collar, actually, made out of thin, fine strands of gold woven together. At the places where they joined were differently sized sapphires, none bigger than a pinky fingernail, each glittering and sparking in the light. The shard was directly in the center, its blue sheen reflecting the light of the sapphires and almost looking like it belonged, if it weren't for the angry humming all three of the artworks could feel in their heads. It seemed as though this artwork was rather aggressive, and _really_ disliked having the shard there.

"Well, that's that," Dark said cheerfully, extracting it. "C'mon, let's go put this baby together and get our tamers back."

The phrasing of the sentence made Krad pause. For almost a week now they had been rushing to get their hosts back, but none of them knew what would happen once they had done so. Would Dark and Krad go back into their minds, only to be let out on special occasions, and never able to be alone together again? Krad shook his head. No! He would not let that happen.

But once Satoshi was back, they would probably be sucked back into one body. Dark and Krad were not meant to have their own forms. Was he okay with that?

No.

But was he going to save the boys anyway?

Absolutely.

No matter how cruel Krad may have had to become, a week with Dark had broken every single barrier he had ever had, smashed him to pieces and built him back up again. And he knew that he could not leave the two human boys there to die.

Not to mention, he had an interest in keeping Satoshi well and safe. The boy was _his_, after all.

He followed Dark and Towa out of the room and shut the door.

—

—

—

When they reached the ground floor again, loud noises were coming from the front door. Bangs, explosions, and screeches could be heard, and the dark-haired kaito quickly grabbed his partner's hand and hurried him out the back, into the garden.

"Emiko-san's having far too much fun," he grinned. "Daisuke's so good he hardly ever gets hit anymore, and besides, she doesn't want her precious baby to get hurt anyway. Whoever Evil Woman sent to stop us is getting the full extent of Emiko-san's sadistic nature released upon them."

Krad shook his head. "The more I hear about her, the healthier my respect grows for that woman, despite her being a Niwa."

Dark laughed and laid out the pieces of the mirror. "Help me fit these together."

It was rather easy, compared to how much work it had taken to get each piece. The mirror had split from the center outward, splitting cleanly into thirteen pieces of almost exactly the same size. When two pieces that matched were placed together, they melted into one, and the magical pulse increased.

"You ready?" Dark asked, holding up the last piece. Krad nodded, and both angels took a deep breath as Dark lowered it to fit into its slot. It melted in, and at first nothing happened.

Suddenly all of the magical energy in the mirror contracted into the center, and then blew outward, knocking the angels flat on their backs and whipping through the garden. Towa vanished in a shriek of feathers, presumably forced into her bird form, and the angels' whole world shuddered.

The energy slowly pulled back in, and Dark and Krad sat up, feeling as though they'd each drunk an entire bottle of wine and then hit themselves over the head with the empty bottle.

The Mirror of Desire lay whole on the grass, shining innocently up at them.

"Yeah, yeah, like you didn't have any effect on what just happened," Dark grumbled to it as he and Krad crawled over to its side. "God, my head is killing me."

The mirror hummed in apology and suddenly their headaches were gone. "Thank you," Krad said to the mirror. "Towa no Shirube!"

Towa fluttered over, a frown on her tiny face. "Stop calling me that, Krad-san. Call me Towa-chan or To-to. Being called Towa no Shirube all the time makes me feel old, and I'm barely one hundred."

Krad raised a golden eyebrow and turned back to the mirror. "Niwa Daisuke and Hikari Satoshi," he said to it, and the surface went opaque for a moment. Then an image rippled into existence.

Satoshi and Daisuke were floating in the middle of darkness, surrounded by shards of glass. Daisuke was leaning up against Satoshi, in between his legs, and Satoshi's arms were wrapped around him. Both of them looked exhausted.

"Shit," Dark cursed, and a rather large explosion from the house behind them punctuated his statement. "Towa-chan, take us through the mirror into the pendant!"

"Right!" the girl said, and transformed into her human form. Grabbing each angel's arm, she pulled them through, and the world vanished.

—

—

—

"There they are!" Dark pointed.

"I see them," Krad nodded, and they swooped toward the two boys, their wings nearly touching.

The boys looked up, looks of exhaustion turning to ones of delight. "DARK!" Daisuke cried, struggling to stand up. The two angels slipped in next to them and Dark caught Daisuke as he practically fell into him.

"Hey hey, Dai-chan, did you miss me?"

"Of course I did, you idiot!" Daisuke smiled up at him. "What took you so long?"

"Oh, blondie over here kept on getting hurt."

"Hey, who was the one who got directly blasted by a fire demon?" Krad asked, supporting Satoshi as he stood up.

"Who was the one who got cut open by an undead samurai and nearly died?" Dark retorted.

Satoshi laughed weakly. "I never thought I'd say this, but I'm very glad to see you, Krad." Krad's eyes widened and he blushed faintly pink.

Then a feminine shriek of rage burst through the air, shredding the darkness and making the splinters of glass around them shudder. _"No! You cannot have them! They are MINE!"_

Dark and Krad automatically clutched their tamers close to their chests, looking around. "Hate to break it to you, lady, but they were ours long before they even knew you existed!" Dark shouted back.

"_Ah, but you forget, little angels! You are in my world now, and I know every…single…inch…of it. And I will never, EVER be forced back inside."_

The world began to close in around them. Dark and Krad winced, their ears suddenly being pressured as though the sides of their head were being pushed in. The shards of glass shivered and suddenly began launching themselves at the five intruders.

"Fuck!" Dark shouted, and he and Krad wrapped their wings around their tamers, protecting them even as they themselves were cut by the shards. "Towa, get us out of here!"

"Hold on!" she shouted, and grabbed them. "Dark, Krad, I'm going to need your energy to get us out!"

"Use as much as you need!" Both angels opened their power centers completely to the little bird, and they began to rise—slowly at first, and then gaining speed. The artworks gritted their teeth against the pain of the glass and held the two boys tighter, rising higher and higher, the glass cuts coming faster and faster, and Dark had the crazy thought that it would be highly unlikely if either of them would be able to fly for the longest time. The scream of the woman began again and rose with them, rising in pitch until it felt as though their ears should be bleeding, and it was only pain, and noise, and _don't let go,_ and they were almost drained of power and Towa was screaming too and fight, fight, never stop fighting even though your vision is going black and you can only feel the body in your arms and the pain in your wings…

And then, with five shrieks of pain, they landed on the grass in Daisuke's backyard. Krad dizzily let go of Satoshi and rolled over, letting his blood-soaked wings flap on either side of him. "Dark!" he crawled over to the kaito, arms nearly giving out from pain and exhaustion.

They met halfway and fell into each other, Dark pressing kisses all over his face and murmuring, "We did it, we did it, we did it…"

"Not keeping this quiet, are we?" Krad muttered.

Satoshi chuckled weakly. "Impossible to do now. Congratulations, Krad, you finally got laid."

Krad flipped his middle finger in the general direction of his tamer and laid his head on Dark's chest, sighing. Before he passed out he heard the back door slam open and footsteps approach, and he thought fuzzily, _I hope Emiko doesn't blame us for the bloodstains…_

* * *

**Well, there you have it! Only one more chapter after this, and now I need some advice:**

**Do you, all my lovely readers, think that I should write a Daisuke/Satoshi lemon, and, if so, who should be seme? I know I wrote earlier that Satoshi fingers himself while he masturbates, and I think a seme Daisuke would be an interesting sight, but it doesn't have to be that way. So hurry up and review and let me know! **


	15. The End

"Hey, look at this." Satoshi spread out the newspaper he was holding across his knees so that Daisuke could see it too. He pointed at the article in question. "Looks like that pendant really did explode when we were pulled out."

Daisuke read the article slowly, his eyes still tender from a glass shard cutting across them. "Sugoi…what a wide range of destruction. That must have been some powerful magic."

"Yeah." Satoshi looked over at the other bed in the room and sighed. "I wonder when they'll wake up."

The bed contained the two angels, wrapped around each other in a sleep so deep that they hadn't woken since the rescue, five days ago. Satoshi and Daisuke had fared much better, mostly thanks to the fact that Krad and Dark had protected them with their wings.

Emiko opened the door to the room and smiled. Entering with a tray of food, she set it on the bed and said, "You boys still have to share a bed?"

Due to rather unusual circumstances that no one could explain, neither tamers nor angels could sleep away from each other. When Daisuke and Satoshi were separated, their anxiety levels slowly rose until they were practically trembling with the need to be near each other. Daisuke, already a very affectionate person, was far worse off than Satoshi, who was used to craving human contact and being denied it. It was physically impossible to keep the angels apart; whenever separated, they simply traveled towards each other on clouds of magic until they met, usually somewhere in the hall, where they wrapped their arms around each other and slept on. While Daiki said that the magic use was a good sign that their magic was not adversely affected by what happened, he advised against separating them again, for the good of their and everybody else's health—he'd almost tripped over them in the hall twice.

"Hai, kaa-san," Daisuke said, smiling. "Thank you for bringing us food."

"Oh nonsense," she waved off the thanks. "Neither of you are well enough to make it down into the dining room anyway, and shouldn't be walking about." She pointed to the two bowls. "Now you eat all of that, all right? They had better be empty when I come up and get them!" and she bustled out the door.

Emiko's distrust and suspicion of Satoshi had never stood a chance against her motherly instincts. When she saw how attached the two boys were to each other and how starved for affection Satoshi was, all of her protective instincts had been roused and, five days later, she was treating him as another son. It made Satoshi bemused and Daisuke beam with joy.

Both boys folded their hands together. "Itadakimasu!" they chorused, and then picked up their chopsticks to begin eating. Satoshi sighed. "I cannot wait until your mother lets us eat solid food again, Dai-chan. All of this soup is getting old, no matter how good your mother's cooking is."

"Ne, Sato-kun," Daisuke shrugged, "she'll keep us on this until she thinks we're ready. No complaining from us will change her mind, believe me."

Satoshi sighed and glanced over at the other bed again. "When do you think they'll wake up, Dai-chan? I miss…" he shrugged and half-smiled. "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I miss Krad."

"It is rather lonely, isn't it?" Daisuke said thoughtfully. "I wonder why we didn't remerge after we came out of the pendant. Hmm." He sipped his soup thoughtfully and stared off into space, his brow creased in thought.

Satoshi thought that look was the cutest thing he had seen in years. Ever since they had gotten out he had been keeping his distance from his boyfriend, knowing that Daisuke wouldn't want his whole family to know they were dating. But as his strength came back and he was forced to stay in the same bed with his absolutely kawaii redhead, it became harder and harder to force down the urge to tackle Daisuke and molest him to the point of screaming.

He dragged his eyes away and finished his soup hurriedly, focusing on it rather than his hentai thoughts. Soon Emiko came back to collect the dishes and tell them that she and Towa were going shopping, and Satoshi groaned inwardly. The main rein on his self-control had been the fact that Emiko and Towa had a habit of coming up to check on them at random times, but now that they were going shopping that threat of being discovered was gone. Both Niwa men were gone, doing research somewhere, so they'd have the house to themselves.

_Fuck._

Satoshi held onto his control fiercely as they listened to the door close downstairs, signaling an empty house. He closed his eyes briefly to reaffirm the fact that he _could_ survive several hours alone with Daisuke without jumping him, and when he reopened them Daisuke was sitting right in front of him, staring at him worriedly.

"Whoa!" he shouted, scooting backward. "Dai-chan! You scared me."

"Gomen," Daisuke said, his look of worry not diminishing. "Daijobu ka, Sato-kun?"

"Nani?" Satoshi asked. "Daijobu. Doishite?"

"Because…" Daisuke twisted his hands in the comforter nervously. "You haven't touched me at all since we got back. Is it something I did?"

Satoshi stared. Then he shook his head. "Iie," he said, "you didn't do anything. I've been trying to control myself. I didn't think you wanted your parents knowing, and besides, we were recuperating."

Daisuke blushed. "Demo…they're not here now," he said quietly, looking up at his blue-haired boyfriend through his red fringe with shyly lustful scarlet eyes. Satoshi swallowed. "And we're not recuperating anymore. And we haven't even kissed since we got out of the pendant—" he was cut off as Satoshi flung himself forward, no longer able to resist the look of a sultry Daisuke, no matter how unintentional the look was.

He tackled Daisuke to the bed, taking his lips in a lustful kiss. Biting the bottom one to get Daisuke to open for him, he thrust his tongue inside and feverishly began mapping out his boyfriend's mouth, before drawing back and sucking on the redhead's tongue. Daisuke gasped in surprise, then moaned in pleasure, reciprocating the hot kiss. Filled with five days of pent-up desire, Satoshi completely dominated the smaller boy's mouth, licking his way around the inside, biting and sucking and swallowing every single hot little moan Daisuke poured into his mouth.

Finally, after several minutes where the only sounds were their harsh breathing and moans, Satoshi drew back and licked his lips. "Oishii," he whispered, and his eyes sparked with amusement when Daisuke, already flushed with arousal, blushed even further at his comment. "So, Dai-chan, how was that for a first kiss in your home?"

"Ano…it was…very nice," Daisuke answered. "But…ano…is that as far as we're going to go?"

Satoshi bit back a groan as his eyes widened and his cock, already half-hard, twitched in his pajama pants, hardening further. "We can go as far as you want, Dai-chan," he promised. He drew back, sliding off of Daisuke so that he could sit up and pull off his shirt. As he dropped it off the side of the bed, he found that Daisuke was staring avidly at his body. He grinned. "You can do anything you want to me," Satoshi said, and sat up against the head of the bed, blue eyes steady on his partner.

Daisuke knelt between Satoshi's spread legs and slowly began to explore his chest with his fingers, covering the skinny expanse with his palms. There were small scars here and there, some of which the redhead could identify from past fights between their angels. Others he had no idea where they had come from, and they told a violent story of Satoshi's childhood. Daisuke closed his eyes in pain for his lover.

"Daisuke," Satoshi said, and Daisuke looked up at him. Satoshi smiled down at him, caressing his face carefully. "You don't have to worry about my past. I'm okay. Really. And I'm here with you, now, so please don't worry."

Daisuke smiled back. "I'll try not to." He lowered his gaze back to Satoshi's chest and continued exploring, unaware of the state his touches were creating in his boyfriend. After a moment, however, he did notice how much faster Satoshi's breathing had become, and he glanced up at the blue-haired boy's face to see a look of unconcealed want in his eyes.

Daisuke flushed. "Sato-chan…" he whispered.

"Hai, koibito?" Satoshi whispered back.

"Ano…will you touch me?" Daisuke bit his lip.

Satoshi's eyes flickered down to the movement briefly, then refocused on Daisuke's face. "Absolutely." He pulled off Daisuke's shirt and dropped it on the floor, hands immediately returning to roam hungrily across the expanse of flesh. Daisuke gasped in shock at the feeling, then moaned in delight, arching into the caresses. Satoshi grinned hungrily and lowered his head to suck on the redheaded boy's nipple, feeling him writhe further as he did so.

"Ah…Satoshi!" Daisuke gasped, eyes wide as his body was swamped with sensations he'd never even imagined were possible. "What…what are you doing?" then he blushed; what a childish thing to say!

"Mmm," Satoshi hummed, switching nipples. "Making you feel good." He glanced up and grinned sexily, making Daisuke's breath hitch.

Within a few minutes both boys were naked and all over each other, any awkwardness forgotten in their curiosity and desire to touch each other's bodies. Satoshi was the first to reach for Daisuke's cock, wrapping his hand around it and stroking upward. "It's so smooth, Dai-chan," he murmured. "Smooth and yet…hard. Hot."

"Aah, Sato-chan!" Daisuke gasped, arching upwards. "Don't say things like that!"

Satoshi raised an eyebrow, still moving his hand slowly up and down. "Why not?"

"Because it makes me…feel funny inside," Daisuke gasped.

"Ah?" Satoshi gripped harder and moved a little faster. "A good funny or a bad funny?"

Daisuke paused to consider for a moment. "I suppose…a good funny," he decided. "It makes my stomach feel all melty and my head buzz."

"That is definitely a good thing," Satoshi chuckled. "Daisuke, have you ever done this before?"

"No, of course not," Daisuke said, looking down at him from his position on top of Satoshi's lap. Satoshi swallowed, forcing himself to _not_ molest his sexy little boyfriend.

"Then which would you prefer, being the seme or the uke?"

Daisuke looked blank.

Satoshi shook his head in amusement. "You really don't know what that means?"

"Ano…" Daisuke ducked his head, a blush making him incredibly more sexy. "With my mom, it's kind of hard to find time to do research about sex…"

"Understandable. Well, the seme is the dominant in a male-male relationship and usually does the penetrating. The uke is the submissive and is usually the one being penetrated. So…" Satoshi grinned, his thumbs making circles on Daisuke's hips. "Which would you prefer? I'm warning you now, being uke hurts the first few times until you get used to it."

Daisuke slammed his hands down on Satoshi's shoulders, pinning the blue-haired boy to the bed as he snarled, "How do you know that!? Who did you do it with?!"

Satoshi blinked. "The internet is an amazing thing," he remarked offhandedly, secretly very happy that Daisuke was so possessive.

"Oh…" Daisuke removed his hands, his blush back on his face. "Etto…I don't want to dominate you, Sato-chan…And I'm not afraid of pain…"

The blue-haired police officer smiled. "I had kind of expected that. You're naturally submissive, Dai-chan, it makes sense that you wouldn't want to dominate something as powerful as sex."

"So what do we do now?" Daisuke asked, wriggling to get more comfortable in his boyfriend's lap.

Satoshi gasped, hands clenching around the small redhead's sides to hold him still. "We start by you not doing that, Dai-chan," he said through gritted teeth, "Or this might end up being much rougher than I want it to be."

"Oh?" Daisuke tilted his head to one side, and purposely wiggled his hips again. Satoshi groaned. "It looks like you enjoy that quite a bit," he giggled, now moving his hips in an almost circular motion. Then he gasped as his own erection slid across Satoshi's stomach. "Ohh…" he said, surprised. "That _does_ feel good…"

Satoshi thought his eyes might burn up from the visual stimulation. His boyfriend, his unbelievably sexy, cute-as-sin boyfriend, was giving him an impromptu, unprofessional lapdance.

It was the hottest thing he'd ever seen in his life.

"Kuso!" Satoshi gasped, suddenly realizing something rather important.

"What?" Daisuke asked, stopping his wonderful movement.

"We don't have any lubrication," groaned the boy.

Something hit Daisuke in the side, and both boys looked over at the other side of the room. Dark lay there, grinning tiredly at them.

"There ya go, loverbirds," he yawned, sitting up. Krad wrapped an arm around his waist and leaned on his shoulder, eyes heavy-lidded. Both ex-tamers blushed a brilliant color of red. "Thanks for waking us up, by the way. I've slept enough for at least a month." Dark rose and helped Krad up. "We'll leave you two alone now to finish whatever you were planning to do, while we go find a private place of our own." He winked and dragged Krad out of the room as fast as he could, considering his legs were still shaky.

Both boys watched their angels exit with wide eyes. Finally Daisuke broke the silence. "I wonder why Dark had lube in his pocket."

"I _really _don't want to know," Satoshi said firmly. "What goes on between your angel and my angel can stay firmly with them."

Daisuke looked back at him and grinned, rolling his hips down again and making them both groan in pleasure. "Well, now that we have privacy _and_ lube, what do you suggest we do?"

Satoshi growled and flipped them over, successfully setting Daisuke underneath him. "I know exactly what I _want_ to do," he breathed in Daisuke's ear. "Whether or not you'll let me is still up to debate."

Daisuke shuddered. "What…do you want to do?"

"Well…" Satoshi smirked, hidden in the curling strands of hair by Daisuke's ear. "I want to slick my fingers with lube, then slid them slowly into your body, stretching you carefully and getting you ready for me. Then I'll have you slick me up with your small artist's hands before penetrating you slowly and carefully, pushing you onto my cock as your body slowly accepts me into it."

Daisuke was gasping in lust, his eyes dilated. Satoshi smirked, his ego stroked by his first attempt at dirty talk. Then his eyes widened as Daisuke grabbed the lube and pressed it into his hands. "Onegai," the redhead breathed, "Onegai…just…do what you said…"

Nodding, Satoshi slicked up his fingers and Daisuke obligingly spread his legs. "This will hurt a little," Satoshi warned.

"I know," Daisuke said. He smiled. "I trust you."

Throat tight, Satoshi nodded and pressed his middle finger into the small rosy pucker beckoning to him. Daisuke gasped, reflexively tightening and then relaxing. Satoshi moved it in and out carefully, getting him used to the feeling. Then he added his first finger.

Surprisingly, Daisuke took three fingers before a flicker of pain crossed his face. Satoshi immediately slowed down, trying to prep him with as little pain as possible. Finally he withdrew his fingers and wiped them on the blankets.

"Daisuke?" Satoshi held out the lube. "Get me ready."

Daisuke took it and, with trembling fingers, squeezed some out on his hands before tossing the bottle on the floor and reaching out to cover Satoshi's erection. The blue-haired boy moaned in delight, leaning his head back and enjoying the attention to his weeping cock.

"Satoshi?" Daisuke whispered. Satoshi looked down to see his lover's eyes wide in fear.

"Don't worry, koibito," Satoshi said, smiling and stroking his cheek. "I'll be gentle, I promise." He lined himself up and, gripping his base in his hand, slowly began pushing in. Daisuke gasped, his legs tightening around Satoshi's waist. Satoshi didn't stop, eyes fixed on where Daisuke's tight pucker was spreading wide to fit him in. "Daijobu, Daisuke?" he asked, breathing hard, several drops of sweat sliding down his body. He was only halfway in.

"I'm…give me a minute," Daisuke gasped, eyes clenched tight shut. It was uncomfortable for Satoshi as well; Daisuke was tight enough around him to cause discomfort.

"All the time you need," Satoshi replied.

A few minutes later Daisuke sighed and nodded. Satoshi began slowly rocking in and out, mesmerized by the sight and feel of finally having sex with his longtime love. Unconsciously he began to speed up, and at one point Daisuke's eyes flew open and he gasped.

"Oh! Satoshi, hit that spot again!"

_That must be his prostate,_ Satoshi thought, and tried to aim for that spot again. Daisuke threw his head back and moaned, relaxing further around him. Satoshi sped up again, slipping further and further inside his boyfriend until, with a start, he realized he was fully sheathed inside the hot tight confines of the small body beneath him.

"Daisuke," he panted, "I can't hold on much longer…"

"Me neither," the redhead gasped, tightening around him. "Ah…Sa-toshi!" shuddering and gasping, Daisuke tipped over the edge into orgasm without a single touch on his spurting cock. The spasming, clenching muscles around him unexpectedly dropped Satoshi over the edge as well, his orgasm slamming into him like a tidal wave. He shook and trembled, one word making it through his gritted teeth.

"Dai…suke!"

They collapsed in a panting, sweaty, sticky pile of exhausted limbs. It had been incredibly short and awkward and inexpert, but it had been the best experience of either of their lives. They were already thinking about how good it would be when they had more practice.

Satoshi sighed and brushed his lips across Daisuke's temple. "We didn't use a condom," he murmured. "You'll be all sticky inside."

Daisuke shrugged. "'S not a big deal," he replied, yawning. "'S not like either of us have diseases we have to worry about…'Sides, I liked the feeling of you emptying into me…"

Satoshi smiled. "Maybe we'll never use one, then…" he murmured. With a grunt, he carefully pulled his sensitive cock out of Daisuke and flopped to the side, too tired to do anything about the mess that covered them.

Down the hall, the two angels wrapped around each other in exactly the same position, falling asleep in each other's arms.

* * *

**Waaahhh!! It's OVER!! I'm done!! Ah, it feels so good… It's also really depressing. But hey, I've got fifty bajillion other stories that I can focus on now.**

**By the way, does anyone know the Japanese word for 'fuck?' It seems like a good word to know. If you do, please leave it in a review.**

**Ja ne!**

**Japanese terms:**

**Ano- um**

**Daijobu- I'm all right**

**Daijobu ka- are you all right?**

**Demo- but, however, etc.**

**Doishite- why?**

**Etto- er**

**Hai- yes**

**Iie- no**

**Kawaii- cute**

**Kuso- shit (I'm not sure about this one, so if it means something different could someone please tell me?)**

**Nani- what**

**Ne- hey, well, basically a filler word**

**Oishii- delicious**

**Okaa-san- mother, the O- is a more formal way of saying it**

**Onegai- please**

**Itadakimasu- thanks for the food, let's eat, I will eat now, etc.**

**Seme- dominant partner in a sexual relationship**

**Sugoi- wow, great**


End file.
